In a few months I shall return and proudly bear you to my home, my chosen and cherished bride. Torture not your heart with the false idea that my parents would scorn an alliance with you, for, though your mother was a Creole, your father was descended from one of Italy's proudest and most ancient lines. And, even were it not so, the noblest lord in England, might be proud to wed one so lovely and innocent as you."

With this address, Clarens tenderly encircled the weeping Pereene with his arm, and as she, abandoning herself to his caresses, looked up smiling through her tears, he felt how weak were all the ties of filial affection, compared with those which bound him to the gentle and loving creature at his side. And he felt, too, that, if he would not quit the path which duty marked out for him to pursue, he must shorten the parting and hasten away.

scene,

The vessel which was to convey Clarens to his native land had arrived some weeks previous to the present time, but had then merely touched at the island where, on account of a temporary illness, he had been for some time a resident, and, after delivering the letters which had occasioned his sudden resolution to depart, had proceeded, for purposes of traffic, to some of the neighboring islands. It had now returned.

For a long time, the lovers stood silently and sorrowfully regarding the merchantman, while its crew occupied themselves, some in the performance of their duties about the vessel, and others in hanging listlessly over its sides, and gazing down into the transparent waters of the Caribbean sea, through which, so wonderful is its clearness, rocks of coral, beautiful shells, and sea-weeds may be seen at the depth of sixty fathoms, as distinctly as if there were no intervening medium. A vertigo often seizes the gazer, who feels as if looking down from the summit of some lofty precipice.

A boat had, meanwhile, been let down from the merchantman, and was soon making its way to the shore. It was the one which was to convey Clarens to the vessel; and the sight aroused the youthful pair from their silent abstraction. Pereene clung to the arm of her lover, and wept, unrestrainedly, such tears as she had never wept before; while the young man, with a quivering lip and blanched cheek, vainly strove, by his assurances of a speedy return, to soothe and comfort her.

"Dear Clarens, do not chide me!" she exclaimed. "I am, indeed, weak and childish; but how can I look around me upon all the mementoes of a happiness that I shall know no and be as calm as you would have me?

more,

How can I reflect that the wide ocean will soon roll between me and one who is dearer to me than life, and keep back the choking tears? Oh, Clarens!" she continued, passionately wringing her hands," my very heart sinks within me at the thought of this dreadful separation! I feel a sad presentiment that we shall never meet again; and, when I strive to look forward to the future with hope, a fearful and boding shadow rises dark before my sight! O, do not leave me! Clarens, do not leave me!" and she threw herself upon his breast, and clung to his neck, with an agony to which tears and sobs gave no relief.

Clarens was well nigh distracted. A thousand conflicting feelings were warring in his bosom. How could he disobey the peremptory commands of his doting but still exacting parents? But how, oh, how could he tear himself from the loving and impassioned being who hung, in all the abandonment of anguish, upon his neck, or turn a deaf ear to all her agonized supplications? He dreaded the influence such violent sorrow would have upon one of her ardent temperament; for, pure and innocent as purity itself, Pereene was yet a child of wild and vehement passions. The scorching rays of that burning clime, though they had failed to 'darken the lily of her complexion, seemed to have concentrated all their fires

in her heart.

Clarens strained the almost despairing girl to his breast, with a love and pitying tenderness which swept away all other feelings; and he, for a moment, yielded to the determination to remain with her, whatever might be the consequences. But the habits of early obedience are strong; and as the memory of his kind and affectionate parents, with the thought of the bitter pang his disobedience would inflict upon their hearts, arose to his mind, duty triumphed over the pleadings of love, and he was at once resolved. Tenderly but firmly he raised the still weeping girl from his breast, and again endeavored to compose her agitated spirits, and, by a thousand caresses and assurances, to reconcile her to her present trial. And this time he was not unsuccessful. Pereene listened calmly to his arguments, and soon entered with fresh hope into his plans for the future. He promised to embrace every opportunity for conveying letters to her, and to return, at farthest, in six months; and Pereene, if not happy, was at least composed and resigned. "You are right, Clarens," said she; "I feel that you are right. Go to your parents, and satisfy the yearnings of their hearts to see you, and hear your voice once more. I could not love you as I now do, could you prove recreant to the affection and duty you owe to

them. I, who have no parents left to love, can at least feel how truly they should be loved. Go;" and her repressed feelings again burst forth; "but, O, Clarens, do not, do not forget me!"

But I forbear to weary my readers by dwelling longer on the parting scene. It would appear but a trite and oft-told tale.

Smiles and tears,

vows and promises, a wringing of hands, and the caresses of pure and hallowed affection, were mingled with the broken and half-stifled whisperings of "adieu."

Signals of haste had long been flying from the vessel, and Clarens, snatching a beautiful India scarf from the shoulders of Pereene, and pressing a last kiss upon her cheek, hastened to the boat, and was soon standing on the deck of the vessel which was to bear him to the distant shores of lordly England. Pereene stood watching the gallant ship as it gracefully receded from the coast, and, when at length it faded in the distance, strained after it a last aching gaze, and turned away with a sickness at her heart that was bitterer than death.

It is now necessary that my readers should accompany me back a few years, in order to become acquainted with some particulars in the