use of Nevil, though he was under the influence of that grave night's walk with him

signal; if, for example, apoplexy or any other cordial ex machina intervention had removed the middle-aged marquis; and, perhaps, if Renee had shown the repugnance to her engagement which Nevil declared she must have in her heart, he would have done more than smile; he would have laid the case deferentially be

en of to me, Roland? I a

to banish all hope of her from his mind. But the mind he addressed was of a curious order; far-shooting, tough, persistent, and when acted on by the spell of devotion, indomitable. Nevil put hope aside, or rather

, considering that Renee, however much she

she was not: and therefore,' said h

as clear a conventional a

how the breadth of the division between them. He proposed to go likewise. She was mute. After some discourse she contrived

ll not go,'

to number you amo

go, for it cannot be barba

wickedness,

ndness, for which, in charity to her sweeter nature, she had to ask his pardon, and then had to fib to give reasons for her conduct, and then to pretend to herself that her pride was humbled by him; a most humiliating round, constantly recurring; the worse for the reflection that she created it. She attempted silence. Nevil spoke, and was like the magical piper: she was compelled to follow him and dance the round again, with the wretched thought that it must resemble coquettry. Nevil did not think so, but a very attentive observer now upon the scene, and possessed of his half of the secret, did, and warned him. Rosamund Culling added that the French girl might be only an

r acute in your country?' Ne

,' sa

o an irritable antagonism, without remindi

ed my brother's life'; the apropos b

in her eyes, unintelligible to the direct Englishwoman, except under the heading

on her hero, and Rosamund thought, '

peak to you, but that I feel you would betray me,' her eyes had said. The strong sincerity dwelling amid multiform complexities might have made itself comprehensible to the English lady for a moment or so

'You think her older than she is, and that

a serpent, Nevil. Forgive me; but whe

a man consents to think

vil, you have not c

her! let him

of duty, in attendance on a captious 'young French beauty, who was the less to be excused for not dismissing him peremptorily, if she cared for him at all. His career, which promised to be so

d in her note. Roland had hired a big Chioggian fishing-boat to sail into the gulf at night, and return at dawn, and have sight of Venice rising from the sea. Her father had declined; but M. Nevil wished to be one of the party, and in that case....

ssing for the sake of the loveliest

well,' Rosa

s she was aware of the grief of Rosamund's life, her quick intuition whispere

know it too we

samund, 'and I think, mademoiselle, with

of mine, madame. I

unnecessary to f

ast day of

issed h

. Renee was in debate whether the woman

ey had left carpenters and upholsterers at work, and the deli

aning out of it, and provisioning, and making it worthy of its freight. Nevil was surprised that Mrs. Culling sho

is smoothly chaperoned, and madame will present us tea on board. All the etcaeteras of life

od,' at the proper intervals, and walked down the riva to look at the busy boat, said to Nevil, 'You are a sailor; I confide my family to you,' and prudently counselled Renee t

o produce a make-believe of comfort on board for them, word was brought down to the boat by the count's valet that the Marquis de Rouaillout had arrived. Renee turned her face to her brother superciliously. Rolan

on the open sea. How can

are on the open sea,' Ro

ications with land,' Francois resp

rotted the decks and hung their bodies half over the sides of the vessels to deliver fire, flashed eyes and snapped fingers, not a whit less fierce than hostile crews in the old wars hurling an interchange of stink-pots, and then resumed the trot, apparently in search of fresh ammunition. An Austrian sentinel looked on passively, and a police inspector peeringly. They were used to it. Happily, the combustible import of the language was unknown to the ladies, and Nevil's attempts to keep his crew quiet, contrasting with Roland's phlegm, which a Frenchman can assume so philosophic

in reply to a salute from the Marquis de

the question that we can come to you

ulated 'With alacr

n to-morrow midnight's ti

at sea! The count dejectedly confessed his incapability to restrain them: the young desperadoes were ready fo

t be as mad as the re

he count; 'but their women ar

hat room is there for the propr

s you say, my

allow

. They tell me they have given t

he you

you, the very pick of his country, fresh, lively,

used a doleful laugh. 'It would seem

pring thrusting in a bunch of lilac while the winds of winter blow. If

stures; he looked a gentleman, though an ultra-Gallican one, that is, too scrupulously finished for our taste, smelling of the valet. He had the habit of balancing his body on the hips, as if to emphasize a juvenile vigour, and his general attitude suggested an idea that he had an oration for you. Seen from a distance, his baldness and strong nasal projection were not winning features; the youthful standard he had evidently prescribed to himself in his dress and hi

lder kind of feminine pity, which is nearer to contempt than to tenderness. She sat still, placid outwardly, in fear of herself, so strange she found it to be borne out to sea by her sailor lover under the eyes of her betrothed. She was conscious of a tumultuous rush of sensation

beside him over the vessel's rails, not separated from him by the breadth of a fluttering riband. Like him, she scarcely heard her brother when for an instant he intervened, and with Nevil she said adieu to Venice, where the faint red Doge's palace was like the fading o

he sails, and back f

gh a marvel had been worked; an

The adieu to Venice was her assurance of liberty, but Venice hidden rolled o

ahead. The night was growing starry. Th

id Nevil; 'one?

red. 'Oh! do

ive me y

, my f

t it meant no more than a hand he knew by the very frankness of her compliance, in the manner natural to her;

ling sea. For Nevil the starred black night was Renee. Half his heart was in it: but the combative division flew to the morning and the deadly iniquity of the marriage, from which he resolved to save her; in pure devotedness, he believed. And so he cl