A VOYAGE IN THE NORTH SEAS. 251 



teous friend, even the cabin of a whaler and the horrors of the 

 polar seas were perfectly tolerable. 



Many were her cogitations respecting him who had been the pre- 

 server of her life, and who now only made that life supportable. At 

 first she felt only the deepest gratitude towards him, but it was gra- 

 titude which Captain Bellamy, and those who had rescued her from 

 the wreck, equally shared. Presently she observed (when did ever 

 such a fact long escape the eye of a girl of eighteen ?) that Frank 

 possessed a tall and handsome person, polished manners, and a voice 

 when addressed to her, modulated to the finest tones of manly sym- 

 pathy. They conversed, they read ; she was delighted with the in- 

 formation, which, without pedantry or parade, he poured forth on 

 the subjects which engaged their attention j and thus she soon learnt 

 to admire his intellectual powers, and respect the rectitude of his 

 principles. Then she began to wonder that one like him, so evidenly 

 superior to those among whom he was cast, should occupy the situa- 

 tion which he held; but, above all, she wondered what could be the 

 cause of his deep and settled melancholy. Mystery, that chief charm 

 of female fancy, enveloped the object of her contemplations ; she at- 

 tempted to unravel it, and in doing so, lost her own heart by the 

 way. There was gratitude, and admiration, and pity, and above all, 

 mystery. What could spring from such a combination of circum- 

 stances but love? So Flora loved Frank. 



He seemed to be the imaged thought which fancy, in her maiden 

 dreams, had painted as her future lover ; and in the strange events 

 which had thrown them together, she fondly traced the agency of an- 

 invisible power, which appeared to have decreed that their destinies 

 were to be united. Flora was not one of those paragons of ignorant 

 innocence w r hich poets sometimes paint, who cannot translate the lan- 



fuage of their own hearts when it speaks for the first time of love, 

 he knew that she loved Arundel with a deep and sacred affection, 

 for he was worthy of all her heart had to bestow ; she knew also that 

 she loved him fondly and passionately, for the virgin energies of her 

 soul were now for the first time called into action. A thousand times, 

 as she met his melancholy brow, the thought that all this sorrow 

 might be for some other maiden, whose unkindness had driven him 

 in despair from his home and his fitting station in society, came 

 across her to blast the beauty of her dream of love ; and a thousand 

 times she was on the point of putting an end to the torturing doubt, 

 by frankly requesting to be informed of the cause of his grief. At 

 first her respect for the profound and sacred sorrow which his con- 

 duct betrayed prevented her, and afterwards maidenly modesty 

 whispered her that such a question would at once betray the secret 

 which it had already required all her art to conceal. For love is a strange 

 and subtle tactician, and takes, at times, as much care to prevent the 

 state of the heart, in which he governs, from being known, as does 

 the commander of a besieged stronghold from betraying the weak 

 state of his garrison. But Frank had for some time been conscious of 

 the state of Flora's heart. The smile of welcome with which she 

 greeted him after the briefest absence, the avidity with which she 

 joined in the elegant occupations which both so much enjoyed, the 



