"No," she answered, still gazing inquiringly into my face. "But I know
that your love for her so greatly exceeds all others, that it is like a
different feeling. I shall tell her, since it is sweet to be loved, and
she will be glad to know it."

"And after you have told her, Edra, shall you make known her reply to
me?"

"No, Smith; it is an offense to suggest, or even to think, such a thing,
however much you may love her, for she is not allowed to converse with
any one directly or through me. She told me that she saw you on the
hills, and that you tried to go to her, and it distressed her very much.
But she will forgive you when I have told her how great your love is,
that the desire to look on her face made you forget how wrong it was to
approach her."

How strange and incomprehensible it seemed that Edra had so
misinterpreted my feeling! It seemed also to me that they all, from the
father of the house downwards, were very blind indeed to set down so
strong an emotion to mere brotherly affection. I had wished, yet feared,
to remove the scales from their eyes; and now, in an unguarded moment, I
had made the attempt, and my gentle confessor had failed to understand
me. Nevertheless, I extracted some comfort from this conversation; for
Yoletta would know how greatly my love exceeded that of her own kindred,
and I hoped against hope that a responsive emotion would at last awaken
in her breast.

When the last of those leaden-footed thirty days arrived--the day on
which, according to my computation, Yoletta would recover liberty before