"Throw it off? Expose me defenceless to his proud contumely? Even now the cold glance of indifference hath pierced it through!"
Here she arose proudly.
"And what thinkest thou, if I were to stand unarmed, uncovered, before his unfeeling gaze?"
"
He loves thee," hastily rejoined the seer.
"Me!—as soon that bauble learn to love as"——
"Say but one word, and I will bow him at thy feet."
"'Tis well thou mockest me thus. To worm out my secret, perchance.—For this didst thou crave my presence? Let me be gone!"
"Thou shalt say 'Yes,' Kate, ere thou depart!"
The curtain which divided the apartment suddenly flew aside. The astonished lover beheld his mistress:—not the unreal phantom he had imagined, but a being substantial in quality, and of a nature like his own, though gentler than his fondest anticipations.