her with the most passionate and moving exclamations.

But when the faint bloom retinged her cheek, and her lips stirred, he
printed a long kiss on that cheek--on those lips, and surrendered his
post to Ellinor; who, blushingly gathering the robe over the beautiful
breast from which it had been slightly drawn; now entreated all, save the
women of the house, to withdraw till her sister was restored.

Lester, eager to hear what his guest could relate, therefore took Aram to
his own apartment, where the particulars were briefly told.

Suspecting, which indeed was the chief reason that excused him to himself
in yielding to Madeline's request, that the men Lester and himself had
encountered in their evening walk, might be other than they seemed, and
that they might have well overheard Lester's communication, as to the sum
in his house, and the place where it was stored; he had not undressed
himself, but kept the door of his room open to listen if any thing
stirred. The keen sense of hearing, which we have before remarked him to
possess, enabled him to catch the sound of the file at the bars, even
before Ellinor, notwithstanding the distance of his own chamber from the
place, and seizing the sword which had been left in his room, (the pistol
was his own) he had descended to the room below.

"What!" said Lester, "and without a light?"

"The darkness is familiar to me," said Aram. "I could walk by the edge of
a precipice in the darkest night without one false step, if I had but
once passed it before. I did not gain the room, however, till the window
had been forced; and by the light of a dark lantern which one of them
held, I perceived two men standing by the bureau--the rest you can