"What mean you, Katherine!" exclaimed her lover; "you at least are now
in safety--'twould be madness to tempt your fate again. My vessel can
and shall protect you, until your cousin is redeemed; and then,
remember, I have a claim on you for life."

"And how would you dispose of me in the interval?" said the young
maiden, retreating slowly from his advances.

"In the Ariel--by heaven, you shall be her commander; I will bear that
rank only in name."

"I thank you, thank you, Barnstable, but distrust my abilities to fill
such a station," she said, laughing, though the color that again crossed
her youthful features was like the glow of a summer's sunset, and even
her mirthful eyes seemed to reflect their tints. "Do not mistake me,
saucy one. If I have done more than my sex will warrant, remember it was
through a holy motive, and if I have more than a woman's enterprise, it
must be----"

"To lift you above the weakness of your sex," he cried, "and to enable
you to show your noble confidence in me."

"To fit me for, and to keep me worthy of being one day your wife." As
she uttered these words she turned and disappeared, with a rapidity that
eluded his attempts to detain her, behind an angle of the hedge, that
was near them. For a moment, Barnstable remained motionless, through
surprise, and when he sprang forward in pursuit, he was able only to
catch a glimpse of her light form, in the gloom of the evening, as she
again vanished in a little thicket at some distance.