Basil and Annette

* * * * * *

When Basil joined his friends in the passage, Old Corrie touched Emily's arm, and slight as was the action, she understood it, and following him into the room in which Mr. Philpott and the two men they had surprised were conferring, left Basil and Annette together. Old Corrie had placed the lamp on a bracket, and by its dim light our hero and heroine were enabled to see each other. Basil's eyes were fixed earnestly upon Annette, but her agitation was too profound to meet his loving gaze. His heart was filled with pity for the faithful girl who had been for years the victim of Newman Chaytor's foul plot; her drooping head, her modest attitude, her hands clasped supplicatingly before her, made his pity and his love for her almost too painful to bear.

"Annette," he said softly, "will you not look at me?"

She raised her eyes to his face, and he saw that they were filled with tears.

"Can you forgive me, Basil?" she whispered.

"Forgive you, dear Annette!" he exclaimed, taking her hands in his, "it is I who ought to ask forgiveness for believing that you could forget me."

"Never for a single day," she murmured, "have I forgotten you. Through all these years you have been to me the star of hope which made life bright for me. Oh, Basil, Basil! it seems as if you have lifted me from death to life. The world was so dark, so dark-"

"It shall be dark no more dear," he said, his voice trembling with excess of tenderness. "Until you bid me leave you I will be ever by your side. I consecrate my life to you. What man can do to compensate for the suffering you have endured, that will I do in truth, and honour, and love."

He placed his arms about her, and she laid her head upon his breast. There are joys too sacred for utterance, and such joy did Basil and Annette feel as they stood clasped in each other's arms on that dark and solemn night.

* * * * * *

What more need be told? Radiant and happy, with faith restored, they commenced their new life hand-in-hand. Those who had conspired against them, and whose evil designs had been frustrated, went out into the world unpunished by man; they and their intended victims never met again. The business matters it was necessary to arrange were settled by Basil's lawyers, who saved from the wreck a sufficient competence. All who had served him and Annette were amply rewarded. In Mr. Philpott's family their names were names to conjure with; Emily remained with them till she found a sweetheart and a home of her own; and Old Corrie was prevailed upon to live in a cottage near them, attached to which was a piece of land which afforded him profitable employment. He talked sometimes of returning to Australia, or of buying another performing bear, but he did not carry either project into execution. Often and often would the three friends talk of the old days on the plantation, and call up reminiscences of the happy and primitive life they enjoyed there; and then Old Corrie would steal away and leave the lovers together; for, though they were man and wife, they were lovers still, and lovers will remain-purified and sweetened by their trials-till they are called to their rest.

THE END