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178 dignity which she owed herself, teach her to suppress the utterance of that impelling and predominating sentiment which possessed her—the fear of being forgotten!—the fear lest the spell she then held over her lover mighty by absence, be dissolved. It was true he was then before her, breathing nought but love, pouring into her ear the effusions of a soul that seemed to live but for her: and yet, hesitating, her heart palpitating with emotion, nearly unconscious of what she said, she frequently repeated, "You will forget me! absence will cause you to forget me!"

"Forget you!" he replied, in tones impassioned; "you may as easily believe that the operations of nature will be suspended, as to imagine that I shall ever cease to love you! That sacred affection, which I now call Heaven to witness, uniting our souls in one, has become my life, and acts upon me as the sun upon creation."

Rising from her seat, inexpressibly affected, Oriana moved a few paces forward; but drawing her gently towards him, with eyes and hands uplifted towards the West, where the sun was sinking below the horizon in all its effulgent splendour, with the most emphatic utterance Philimore added, "Were the beams of that glorious orb withdrawn, all nature would instantly languish." In the next