seem to be, a gentleman, do not leave me;" she ex-
claimed beseechingly, as she slowly rose and ap-
proached him: "do not leave me, but convey me
back to Stillyside, from whence I have been stolen
by that man. Oh, sir, you do not know with what
a load of thanks its owner will repay you, should
you rescue me from this base durance."

The seigneur looked enquiringly at Samson, but
the latter seemed more disposed to wait to see how
the seigneur regarded the appeal, than to reply to the
tacit question.

"Why have you been brought hither, and against
your will?" resumed the seigneur, respectfully.

"I am as yet ignorant of the cause;" she answered:
"I do not know, I cannot divine, why I am here a
prisoner."

"She does know;" fiercely interrupted the sobbing
Seraphine, "She does, she does," she reiterated, and
seemed disposed to fly at her tooth and nail. "She
knows she is a bold and wicked creature, -- she, she,
she; she is a, a, -- I don't know what she is;" she
cried, spurting out the last words in a paroxysm of
sorrow and vexation, and flung herself into a chair
sobbing hysterically, with toilet and temper alike
disordered.

"Calm yourself, Seraphine," said the Seigneur.

"Yes, calm thyself, girl," echoed the ponderous
Samson. "Why, what a wild duck thou art, sister,
flapping and quacking because an unshotted barrel
has been fired at thee. She is an unshotted gun, she
has no name; and what is a thing without a name?
nothing: for if it were something it would have been
called something. What thing is there -- that is a

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p098 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p099w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p100

v?