"Pray Heaven it be so! though I wish you no ill," said the landlord,
giving his hand.

He then seemed about to approach Ellen, who had been unable to distinguish
the words of this brief conversation; but his comrade prevented him.
"There is no time to lose," he observed. "The moon is growing pale
already, and we should have been many a mile beyond the valley ere this."
He mounted as he spoke; and, guiding Ellen's rein till they reached the
road, they dashed away.

It was now that she felt herself completely in his power; and with that
consciousness there came a sudden change of feeling, and an altered view
of her conduct. A thousand reasons forced themselves upon her mind,
seeming to prove that she had been deceived; while the motives, so
powerful with her but a moment before, had either vanished from her memory
or lost all their efficacy. Her companion, who gazed searchingly into her
face, where the moonlight, coming down between the pines, allowed him to
read its expression, probably discerned somewhat of the state of her
thoughts.

"Do you repent so soon?" he inquired. "We have a weary way before us.
Faint not ere we have well entered upon it."

"I have left dear friends behind me, and am going I know not whither,"
replied Ellen, tremblingly.

"You have a faithful guide," he observed, turning away his head, and
speaking in the tone of one who endeavors to smother a laugh.

Ellen had no heart to continue the conversation; and they rode on in