heaven had created our loves to flow on in one unhallowed stream of
joy. Her dapper figure was neatly set off with a dress of black
silk, buttoned close about the neck, and showing the symmetry of her
bust to great advantage; and over this she wore an apron of brown
silk, gimped at the edge, and her collar and wristbands were of
snowy white linen. "Heaven knows I would not harm thee, for thou art
even too fair; only a knave would rob one so innocent." And I held
her tremblingly by the hand, in the open door, as she attempted to
draw herself away, beseeching me with a bewitching glance to
"remember her youth." Bessie was the landlord's daughter; and though
she was scarce passed her seventeenth summer, had became so famous
for her beauty, as to number her admirers in every village of the
county; and many were the travelers that way who tarried to do
homage to her charms. I had just raised her warm hand to my lips,
hoping, after I had kissed it, to engage her in conversation, when
the door of a room on the opposite side of the passage opened, and a
queer little man, with a hump on his back, and otherwise deformed,
issued therefrom, and with a nervous step hurried down stairs,
muttering to himself like one lost in his own contemplations.
Bessie, with the suddenness of one surprised, vaulted in an opposite
direction, and, ere I had time to cast a glance after her,
disappeared down a back stair, leaving her image behind only to
haunt my fancy, and make me think there was no one else in this
world with whom I could be happy.

A few minutes, and having completed my toilet, I appeared at the
supper table, which the blushing Bessie had spread with all the
niceties of the season, and was waiting to do the honors. My
appetite was indeed keen, but the flashing of her eyes so troubled
my sensitive nature, that I entirely forgot the supper, and began to