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Harleigh!—are you, then, my destined protector?—my guardian angel?"
Speechless from transported surprize, Harleigh pressed to his lips and to his heart each unresisting hand; while Juliet, whose eyes beamed lustrous with buoyant felicity, was unconscious of the happiness that she bestowed, from the absorption of the delight that she experienced.
"Precious, for ever precious moment!" cried Harleigh, when the power of utterance returned; "Here, on this spot, where first the tortures of the most deadly suspense give way to the most exquisite hopes,—"
The countenance of Juliet now again underwent a change the most sudden; its brilliancy was overclouded; its smiles vanished; its joy died away; not, indeed, to return to its look of horrour and affright, but to convey an expression of the deepest shame and regret; and, with cheeks tingling with burning blushes, she strove to re-
