CHAPTER IV. - Fate Interposes.

"Under the Greenwood Tree."

WHEN the departure of the philosopher left him time to think, Yung pondered over the two great events of the last hour; Loe's confession, and Mnag's proposal. The former filled him with a thrilling joy which almost drove the latter from his mind. How could he think of the philosopher's proposition, when his brain kept singing, "She is mine! mine!"

He was too excited to stay under roof; he took his way to the forest. His busy brain was engaged with castles in the air. He framed declarations of passion, and committed them to memory; "For," thought he, "I am so bashful that I could not find a word to say in her presence, unless I had thought it out beforehand." As he came into a little open space, he saw a maid before him; she turned with a cry, and fled. He followed her, and soon caught her, only to see her fall fainting. He knelt by her side; it was Tue. Thus they met.

Yung was at his wits' end. He had never before seen any one in a faint, and he had a very dim idea of what it was necessary to do. He thought, however, that he ought to sprinkle the girl's face with water. He looked around him to find a stream.

He was in a little valley, carpeted with green turf, and almost bare of trees. At the bottom of the vale, a chattering brook ripple over smooth stones, and hurried on to join the sea. Just above him the course of the brook turned from east to south-east; and where the valley curved, on the north bank, a pretty moss-covered grotto opened toward the sun. Behind this a cliff suddenly rose a score of feet; while before it a large flat stone formed a convenient floor, reaching from the cave quite to the edge of the brook.

Yung decided to take the girl to this place; he accordingly bent down and carefully raised her in his arms. The unaccustomed burden made the youth's heart flutter. He gazed down on her face, relaxed as in sleep; at the sight of its innocent beauty, his heart thrilled.

He had never seen a girl's face so closely before. Even Loe's beauty was known to him more by imagination than by experience. Every one called her the belle of the country; and the fanciful Yung had fixed to her his ideal of female loveliness. Here was that ideal realized in another woman, and that woman in his arms!

Before Yung reached the cave, his passion for Loe was almost quite transferred to the stranger; and when, after a vigorous sprinkling with cold water from the brook, she opened her eyes, his enthralment was complete.

"Where am I?" the girl said feebly; then recollecting, "Oh!" and she covered her face with her hands.

Why is it that women, like snakes, fancy themselves hidden from pursuit if their eyes are covered? Is the snake the origin of the female, - and the owl of the male? What we see of the intellects of the two sexes might give some foundation for such an opinion.

Stealing a glance through her fingers, Tue found that the youth before her was not whom she had thought. "Why," she cried, "you are not Ching."

"No," answered Yung, with a sigh; for the question had called up torturing thoughts in his mind.

"You - you will not harm me ?" she begged. "No," answered Yung again, this time decidedly.

The girl closed her eyes, and lay a few moments quiet. When she opened them again, the youth was gone.