The wild, woodland adventure common to the habits of the people of this
class, had a stimulating effect upon his spirit at all other times; and,
even now--though perfectly legitimate for a lover to move slowly from
his mistress--the moon just rising above the trees, and his horse in
full gallop through their winding intricacies, a warm and bracing energy
came to his aid, and his heart grew cheery under its inspiriting
influences. He was full of the future, rich in anticipation, and happy
in the contemplation of a thousand projects. With a free rein he plunged
forward into the recesses of the forest, dreaming of a cottage in the
Mississippi, a heart at ease, and Katharine Allen, with all her
beauties, for ever at hand to keep it so.
CHAPTER XIX.
MIDNIGHT SURPRISE.
The night began to wane, and still did Lucy Munro keep lonely vigil in
her chamber. How could she sleep? Threatened with a connection so
dreadful as to her mind was that proposed with Guy Rivers--deeply
interested as she now felt herself in the fortunes of the young
stranger, for whose fate and safety, knowing the unfavorable position in
which he stood with the outlaws, she had everything to apprehend--it can
cause no wonder when we say sleep grew a stranger to her eyes, and
without retiring to her couch, though extinguishing her light, she sat
musing by the window of her chamber upon the thousand conflicting and
sad thoughts that were at strife in her spirit.
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