self esteem was too much flattered, not to induce him to
overlook, the immediate object of the petitioner. While she prayed that she
might become the humble instrument of bringing him into the flock of the
faithful, she petitioned for forgiveness, on her own behalf, if presumption, or
indifference to the counsel of the church, had caused her to set too high a
value on her influence, and led her into the dangerous error of hazarding her
own soul, by espousing a heretic. There was so much of fervent piety, mingled
with so strong a burst of natural feeling, so much of the woman blended with the
angel, in her prayers, that Middleton could have forgiven her, had she termed
him a pagan, for the sweetness and interest with which she petitioned in his
favor.
    The young man waited until his bride arose from her knees, and then he
joined her, as if entirely ignorant of what had occurred.
    »It is getting late, my Inez,« he said, »and Don Augustin would be apt to
reproach you with inattention to your health, in being abroad at such an hour.
What then am I to do, who am charged with all his authority and twice his love.«
    »Be like him, in every thing,« she answered, looking up in his face, with
tears in her eyes, and speaking with emphasis; »in every thing. Imitate my
father, Middleton, and I can ask no more of you.«
    »Nor for me, Inez? I doubt not that I should be all you can wish, were I to
become as good, as the worthy and respectable Don Augustin. But you are to make
some allowances for the infirmities and habits of a soldier. Now, let us go, and
join this excellent father.«
    »Not yet,« said his bride, gently extricating herself from the arm that he
had thrown around her slight form, while he urged her from the place; »I have
still another duty to perform, before I can submit, so implicitly to your
orders, soldier though you are. I promised the worthy Inesella, my faithful
nurse, she who, as you heard, has so long been a mother to me, Middleton - I
promised her a visit at this hour. It is the last, as she thinks, that she can
receive from her own child, and I cannot disappoint her. Go you then to Don
Augustin; in one short hour, I will rejoin you.«
    »Remember, it is but an hour!«
    »One hour