"'Yes,' I said, 'it is true.'
"Presently, after a pause, Silvain said, 'You knew she was here, Kristel?'
"'Yes,' replied Kristel, 'I knew she was here.'
"No further words were spoken till we reached the lighthouse, entrance to which was obtained by means of stone steps, on each side of which hung ropes and chains to guide and steady us. In a few moments we stood in the presence of Avicia.
"'I told you I would come, Avicia,' said Kristel. 'This is my brother Silvain.'"
[ XIII.]
"How Kristel and Avicia first met is soon explained. Her aunt, who was the only sister of her father, the keeper of the lighthouse, lay dying, as she believed, in a small hamlet in the Tyrol, and had written to her brother to allow Avicia to come to her. Avicia's father, a morose, avaricious man, had the idea that his sister possessed some treasure in money which, upon her death, should be his, and which would be lost were he or Avicia not with her when she died. His duties would not permit him to leave the lighthouse, therefore he sent Avicia to his sister, with careful instructions how to act. In no other circumstances would he have consented that his daughter should leave him, even for a short time, but the temptation was too strong to be resisted. To Avicia it was a trial to quit the strange place in which she had been born, and in which she had passed her life, but she obeyed her father's commands, and it was in the Tyrol that Kristel first came across her. Fascinated by her beauty he paid her marked attentions, and during the three weeks she remained with her aunt (who, instead of dying, recovered her health almost immediately upon the arrival of her niece) the young people were constantly together. What kind of encouragement Avicia gave Kristel I am not in a position to say. That he loved her with all the strength of his heart and soul is certain, and it could not but be that she was flattered by the adulation of a young man so handsome and well-born as Kristel. Despite the difference in their stations he wooed her honourably, and she, simple and unsophisticated, knew not how to reply. Kristel could not marry without his father's consent, and so he told her; and she, enlightened by this avowal as to the right course for her to pursue, told him that she could not marry without her father's consent.
"'Then write to him,' said Kristel, 'and when he replies, and you promise to be my wife, I will write home and avow my love.'
"She wrote as he desired, and at the same time informed her father that her aunt had recovered her health and needed her no longer. It is my opinion that Avicia must have written in such terms concerning Kristel as to have inspired in the father's heart a doubt whether the young gentleman's wooing was prompted by honourable intentions. There are two other possible interpretations of the course he pursued: one, that he had no desire to part from his daughter; the other, that he believed it likely he might make some sort of bargain, to his own advantage, with a man presumably rich who had become enamoured of Avicia's beauty.
"'Come back instantly,' the keeper of the lighthouse wrote to Avicia, in reply to her letter, 'come back within an hour of your reading these lines. Sleep not another night in your false aunt's house; she only sent for you to fool you. As for this young gallant of whom you write, if he is honest, and rich, and reasonable, let him seek you in your father's home. Beware that he is not also fooling you. I doubt my wisdom in sending one so simple as yourself into a false world. Obey me. Come back without an hour's delay.'