Ravenswood fixed upon her his keen dark eyes, as if he was desirous of penetrating into her very soul.

“Lucy,” he said, “I have sacrificed to you projects of vengeance long nursed, and sworn to with ceremonies little better than heathen—­I sacrificed them to your image, ere I knew the worth which it represented.  In the evening which succeeded my poor father’s funeral, I cut a lock from my hair, and, as it consumed in the fire, I swore that my rage and revenge should pursue his enemies, until they shrivelled before me like that scorched-up symbol of annihilation.”

“It was a deadly sin,” said Lucy, turning pale, “to make a vow so fatal.”

“I acknowledge it,” said Ravenswood, “and it had been a worse crime to keep it.  It was for your sake that I abjured these purposes of vengeance, though I scarce knew that such was the argument by which I was conquered, until I saw you once more, and became conscious of the influence you possessed over me.”

“And why do you now,” said Lucy, “recall sentiments so terrible—­sentiments so inconsistent with those you profess for me—­with those your importunity has prevailed on me to acknowledge?”

“Because,” said her lover, “I would impress on you the price at which I have bought your love—­the right I have to expect your constancy.  I say not that I have bartered for it the honour of my house, its last remaining possession; but though I say it not, and think it not, I cannot conceal from myself that the world may do both.”

“If such are your sentiments,” said Lucy, “you have played a cruel game with me.  But it is not too late to give it over:  take back the faith and troth which you could not plight to me without suffering abatement of honour—­let what is passed be as if it had not been—­forget me; I will endeavour to forget myself.”

“You do me injustice,” said the Master of Ravenswood—­“by all I hold true and honourable, you do me the extremity of injustice; if I mentioned the price at which I have bought your love, it is only to show how much I prize it, to bind our engagement by a still firmer tie, and to show, by what I have done to attain this station in your regard, how much I must suffer should you ever break your faith.”

“And why, Ravenswood,” answered Lucy, “should you think that possible?  Why should you urge me with even the mention of infidelity?  Is it because I ask you to delay applying to my father for a little space of time?  Bind me by what vows you please; if vows are unnecessary to secure constancy, they may yet prevent suspicion.”  Ravenswood pleaded, apologised, and even kneeled, to appease her displeasure; and Lucy, as placable as she was single-hearted, readily forgave the offence which his doubts had implied.  The dispute thus agitated, however, ended by the lovers going through an emblematic ceremony of their troth-plight, of which the vulgar still preserve some traces.  They broke betwixt them the thin broad-piece of gold which Alice had refused to receive from Ravenswood.