Soon as her song was finished, he called out, "Louisa!"

Startled at the sudden call, she turned around to the well-known voice,
presenting a face on which love and sweet surprise had spread
those rosy charms, which in a moment banished all his sorrows.
"My dearest Gabriel," she exclaimed, dropping her flowers, and running
and throwing herself into his arms, "here, take back your security!
take back your security! and also my thanks for being such a man of honor.
But what brought you back, love, so much earlier than you expected?"

Here the memory of that fatal letter went like a dagger to his heart,
bleaching his manly cheeks.

He would have evaded the question; but in vain, for Louisa,
startled at the sudden paleness of his looks, insisted the more earnestly
to know the cause.

He delayed a moment, but conscious that the secret must soon come out,
he took the letter from his pocket, and with a reluctant hand
put it into hers.

Scarcely had she run through it, which she did with the most devouring haste,
when she let it drop from her hands, and faintly articulating,
"Ah, cruel priest!" she fell upon his bosom, which she bathed with her tears.

After some moments of distress too big for utterance, Marion, deeply sighing,
at length broke silence.

"Ah, Louisa! and must we part so soon!"