the
impressive silence. Their souls communed with each other, and they
needed not words nor outward signs. At last, after a long pause,
Feodor asked--

"Are you satisfied now, Elise?"

She answered him with a sweet smile, "I am thine forever!"

"And will you never forget this hour?"

"I will not forget it. I will remember that I have sworn to follow
you voluntarily from my father's house, even against his will." And
letting her blushing face droop upon her breast, she whispered, in a
voice scarcely audible--"I await you!"

But these words, low as they had been spoken, reached the ears of two
men at the same time. Not only Colonel Feodor, but also Bertram, who
had drawn close up to Elise again, had overheard them. The first
they filled with emotions of delight, the other with painful anguish.
Bertram, however, was accustomed to wrestle with his love, and smother
the expression of his pain, under the appearance of quiet composure.
He approached Elise, and offered her his hand, said, "Come sister, let
us go."

"Yes, go," said the colonel, with the proud superiority of a preferred
rival. He extended his hand to Bertram, and continued, "Be a good
brother to her, and conduct her safely home."

Bertram's countenance, usually so quiet and calm, assumed for an
instant an offended and almost contemptuous air, and bitter words were
on his tongue; but his angry eye accidentally met Elise's, anxiously
and imploringly directed toward him. He could not master himself
sufficiently to accept Feodor's hand, but at least he could control
his anger. "Come, sister," said he, gently leading Elise toward the
door which the colonel indicated to him by a silent nod.

Elise had not the courage to leave her lover without a word of
farewell; or rather, she was cruel enough to inflict this torture on
Bertram. Stretching both hands toward him, she said softly, "I thank
you, Feodor; God and love will reward you for having greatly and nobly
conquered yourself."

Feodor whispered to her, "And will you remember your vow?"

"Ever and always!"

In bending over to kiss her hand, he murmured, "Expect me, then,
to-morrow."

"I will expect you," said she, as she passed him on her way to the
door.

No word of their whispered conversation escaped the attentive ear of
Bertram; and he understood it, for he loved her, and knew how to read
her thoughts in her looks and her eyes. As he followed her through the
long corridor, and her light, gracefu