He received it, but only to place it again in her hand, reuniting
it to the chain.
"Keep it," said he, "Miss Munro--keep it until I return to reclaim it.
It will be as safe in your hands--much safer, indeed, than in mine. She
whose features it describes will not chide, that, at a moment of peril,
I place it in the care of one as gentle as herself."
Her eyes were downcast, as, again receiving it, she inquired with a
girlish curiosity, "Is her name Edith, Mr. Colleton, of whom these
features are the likeness!"
The youth, surprised by the question, met the inquiry with another.
"How know you?--wherefore do you ask?"
She saw his astonishment, and with a calm which had not, during the
whole scene between them, marked her voice or demeanor, she replied
instantly:--
"No matter--no matter, sir. I know not well why I put the
question--certainly with no object, and am now more than answered."
The youth pondered over the affair in silence for a few moments,
but desirous of satisfying the curiosity of the maiden, though on
a subject and in relation to one of whom he had sworn himself to
silence--wondering, at the same time, not less at the inquiry than the
knowledge which it conveyed, of that which he had locked up, as he
thought, in the recesses of his own bosom--was about to reply, when a
hurried step, and sudden noise from the upper apartment of the house,
warned them of the dangers of further delay.
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