Can I receive from him the bridal ring，endure all the forms of love (which I doubt not he would scrupulously observe) and know that the spirit was quite absent? Can I bear the consciousness that every endearment he bestows is a sacrifice made on principle? No: such a martyrdom would be monstrous. I will never undergo it. As his sister，I might acpany him- not as his wife: I will tell him so."

I looked towards the knoll: there he lay，still as a prostrate column; his face turned to me: his eye beaming watchful and keen. He started to his feet and approached me.

"I am ready to go to India，if I may go free."

"Your answer requires a mentary," he said; "it is not clear."

"You have hitherto been my adopted brother- I，your adopted sister: let us continue as such: you and I had better not marry."

He shook his head. "Adopted fraternity will not do in this case. If you were my real sister it would be different: I should take you，and seek no wife. But as it is，either our union must be consecrated and sealed by marriage，or it cannot exist: practical obstacles oppose themselves to any other plan. Do you not see it，Jane? Consider a moment- your strong sense will guide you."

I did consider; and still my sense，such as it was，directed me only to the fact that we did not love each other as man and wife should: and therefore it inferred we ought not to marry. I said so.

"St. John," I returned，"I regard you as a brother- you，me as a sister: so let us continue."