"
Jessie tried to answer, but the words failed on her lips. Between
the effect of the story, and the anticipation of the parting now
so near at hand, the good, impulsive, affectionate creature was
fairly overcome. She laid her head on Owen's shoulder, and kept
tight hold of his hand, and let her heart speak simply for
itself, without attempting to help it by a single word.
The silence that followed was broken harshly by the tower clock.
The heavy hammer slowly rang out ten strokes through the gloomy
night-time and the dying storm.
I waited till the last humming echo of the clock fainted into
dead stillness. I listened once more attentively, and again
listened in vain. Then I rose, and proposed to my brothers that
we should leave our guest to compose herself for the night.
When Owen and Morgan were ready to quit the room, I took her by
the hand, and drew her a little aside.
"You leave us early, my dear," I said; "but, before you go
to-morrow morning--"
I stopped to listen for the last time, before the words were
spoken which committed me to the desperate experiment of pleading
George's cause in defiance of his own request. Nothing caught my
ear but the sweep of the weary weakened wind and the melancholy
surging of the shaken trees.
"But, before you go to-morrow morning," I resumed, "I want to
speak to you in private.
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