d and they should
send to seek you. For were they but to suspect that I am here and have
seen you, it would, at the best, double all our difficulties. Fare you
well, sweetest Melanie."

"Fare you well," she replied; "fare you well, my own best beloved
Raoul," and she put up the glittering dagger, as she spoke, into the
bosom of her dress; but as she did so, she paused and said, "I wish
_this_ had not been your first gift to me, Raoul, for they say that
such gifts are fatal, to love at least, if not to life."

"Fear not! fear not!" answered the young man, laughing gayly, "our
love is immortal. It may defy the best steel blade that was ever
forged on Milan stithy to cut it asunder. Fare you--but, hush! who
comes here; it is too late, yet fly--fly, Melanie!"

But she did not fly, for as he spoke, a tall, gayly dressed cavalier
burst through the coppice on the side next the chateau d'Argenson,
exclaiming, "So, my fair cousin!--this is your faith to my good
brother of Ploermel is it?"

But, before he spoke, she had whispered to Raoul, "It is the Chevalier
de Pontrein, de Ploermel's half brother. Alas! all is lost."

"Not so! not so!" answered her lover, also in a whisper, "leave him to
me, I will detain him. Fly, by the upper pathway and through the
orchard to the chateau, and remember--you have not seen this dog. So
much deceit is pardonable. Fly, I say, Melanie. Look not behind for
your life, whatever you may hear, nor tarry. All rests now on your
steadiness and courage."

"Then all is safe," she answered firmly and aloud, and without casting
a glance toward the cavalier, who was now within ten paces of her
side, or taking the smallest notice of his words, she kissed her hand
to St. Renan, and bounded up the steep path, in the opposite
direction, with so fleet a step as soon carried her beyond the sound
of all that followed, though that was neither silent nor of small
interest.

"Do you not hear me, madam. By Heaven! but you carry it off easily!"
cried the young cavalier, setting off at speed, as if to follow her.
"But you must run swifter than a roe if you look to 'scape me;" and
with the words, he attempted to rush past Raoul, of whom he affected,
although he knew him well, to take no notice.

But in that intent he was quickly frustrated, for the young count
grasped him by the collar as he endeavored to pass, with a grasp of
iron, and said to him in an ironical tone of excessive courtesy,

"Sweet sir, I fear