porphyry, nor in a sable, slabbed sarcophagus, but
breathing, and enshrined in fortune's framing gold.
Fastidious girl, and prouder than the proud Mon-
tignys, listen to me, listen. We are two stranger
vessels that have met upon the highway of the
lonely sea; -- we are as two ships that, being long
from port, have, sailing, met, and exchanged one
with the other, what each has needed and what each
could spare; we have bartered heart for heart. Have
you not given me yours? If you have not, why,
then, return me mine."

"Then were I poor indeed," replied Amanda.

"Yet I were poorer without yours," retorted
Claude, "poorer than he who begs his bread. I wish
I had to beg my bread for you, then richly should
you fare; for who, when I should crave for love of
you, (as mendicants ask alms for love of heaven),
could then refuse me? Oh, refuse no longer my
request. Estimate not my fortune, but appraise
myself; and whatsoever you may deem to be my
value, account your own worth as being ten thou-
sand times that sum. Still take me, a mere miserable
doit; an earnest, an instalment towards the payment
of the debt of love and loyalty, that shall require a
life to liquidate, then leave me bankrupt in untold
arrears."

"I should forgive the debt, even before you could
have asked forgiveness," replied Amanda, smiling,
though much moved; "and yet I would not leave
you perfectly absolved, but still retain you by some
small reminder, some power of execution over you --
not to be exercised towards you to your hurt -- far
from it, but I would be absolute that I might shew you

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