“Emily, I will not now attempt to conceal the feelings which have torn my heart,” said Henry, in a low tone, as he took her willing hand.  “When I bade you farewell,—­alas! what misfortunes have come since!—­when I left you for I dared not think how long, you know not what violence I did to the warmest feeling of my heart.  You know not what misery the struggle between that feeling and duty has caused me.  I have striven to conquer it; but Heaven has now put you in my path, thus bidding me resist no more the impulse of my heart.  I love you, Emily, and I have tried, for your sake and your father’s, to conquer my love.  Say, Emily, may I venture to hope my love is not unvalued?”

A slight pressure of the hand he held was all the answer he received—­was, indeed, all he asked.

“You forget what I am,” murmured Emily.

“I will always forget what this will has said you are.  But Heaven will not let the innocent be wronged, nor the guilty remain unpunished.  A month since, how I wished you were not the heiress of a millionaire!”

“Why did you wish it?  Did you think that gold would blacken my heart?”

“No, dear Emily, but it would have been ingratitude in me to win your love, and thus destroy any other plan your father might have cherished.”

“My father never had an avaricious disposition,” replied Emily, warmly.

“Far from it; but he might have had some views, in regard to his daughter, with which I might have interfered.”

“But you were a rebel against his views, notwithstanding,” said Emily, with a smile, and a deep blush, which the darkness concealed from Henry.

“I should have been sorry to have heard you say so, then; but now, Heaven bless you for the words!” replied Henry, with a warm pressure of the hand.

[Illustration:  Hatchie and Henry rescuing Emily from the Mississippi.  Page 79]

“Madam,” said Jaspar, who had stealthily approached, without the knowledge of the lovers, “to your state-room!  Captain Carroll, as the guardian of this lady, I request your entire withdrawal, in future, from her society.”

“A request,” replied Henry, proudly, “which I shall entirely disregard.”

“Then, by—­you will receive the penalty of your obstinacy!” said Jaspar, in a passion.

“I am not to be intimidated by threats.”

“Do not provoke him, Henry” said Emily, fearful for the safety of him whom the last hour had doubly endeared to her.

“Mr. Dumont, her request I will obey,” and Carroll walked forward.

He paused by the side of the wheel-house, to hear the report of the leadsman, who was sounding the depth of water, in obedience to the command of the pilot, expressed in a single clang of the heavy bell.  Mechanically he had stopped, and with no interest in the matter he listened to the monotonous reply, “Quarter less three,” &c.  He was about to descend to the boiler deck, when a shrill shriek startled him