"Ah, sir, the Lady Bruntisfield has lamented them bitterly. Never can we repay you for the unmerited severity and humiliations to which you have been subjected in our cause. Oh, can I forget that but for you, Mr. Fenton, we might have become the occupants of that frightful place, the air of which chills me even here!"
"Thee--O no, Lilian Napier, they could not have the heart to immure thee here!"
"The idea is too horrible--but now," he continued, in a voice of delight, "you are speaking like my old companion and playfellow. 'Tis long--O, very, very long, Lilian, since last we conversed together alone. Do you remember when we gathered flowers, and rushes, and pebbles by the banks of the Loch, and berries at the Heronshaw, and gambolled in the parks in the summer sunshine?"
"Never have I been so happy since. O, those were days of innocence and joy!"
There was a pause, and both sighed deeply.
"Poor Walter, how sincerely I pity thee!"
"Then I bless the chance that brought me here."
"In that cold dark pit--Oh, 'tis a place of horror. Would to Heaven I could free you, Mr. Walter!"
"Ah, Lilian, call me Walter, without the _Mr_. Your voice sounds then as it did in other days, ere cold conventionalities raised such a gulf between us."
"They can do so no longer," said the young lady, weeping; "we are landless and ruined now, and O! did not fear for my good aunt Grisel make me selfish, I would surrender myself to the council to-morrow."
"We both accuse ourselves of selfishness--of the very excess of cowardice, and of blotting our honour for ever, by meanly flying and transferring all our dangers to you."
"Do not permit yourself to think so," said Walter, moved to great tenderness by her tears. "Dear Lilian, (allow me so to call you, in memory of our happier days,) leave me now--to tarry here is full of danger. If you are discovered by the rascals who guard this place, the thought of what would ensue may drive me mad; threats, imprisonment, discovery, and disgrace--oh, leave me, for God's sake, Lilian!"
"Besides, I may be compromising the safety of those good friends who so kindly have accompanied me hither to-night. Ah! there is a terrible proclamation against us fixed to the city cross; they style us those intercommuned traitors, the Napiers, umquhile of Bruntisfield."