But
words are wanting to express even the thousandth part of her charms. Enough, gentlemen, that all that is innocent, virtuous, and heavenly,
was expressed in that smile she gave me. "Angel of Beauty!" I exclaimed, "whatever your name, your parentage,
your birthplace, I vow----"

"Toughyarn, Toughyarn," said a voice within me, "don't make an old fool
of yourself. Mermaids are deceitful and dangerous, however beautiful,
as you will find out to your cost before long. Think of your age, your
position. Is it likely you can excite a genuine passion in any maid? For
shame, sir. How can you appear romantic in her eyes, astride a grog
cask. Only reflect a little." But I would not reflect. I stifled the voice within me, and, abandoning
myself to the impulse of my passion, pressed my hand to my heart, and
was about to burst out afresh, when the fair one, fixing her large deep
blue eyes upon me--deep as the Mediterranean in a calm--with a
supernaturally winning smile, addressed me thus, in tones to which the
softest music was discord:

"Welcome, Captain Toughyarn, to our haunts. Welcome to the Mermaid
Grotto of pearl and coral, to my father's palace. It is long that we
await you. We have heard much of your exploits by sea, and we are all
impatient to make the acquaintance of a hero so illustrious." "What!" I cried; "you have heard of me and expected me, O fair one?" "Yes, captain, our Sybil has prophesied your arrival here, and your
visit to our palace. Oh, she told me many things about you that she has
seen in vision. The mutiny of your crew, your first mate struck with
blindness when about to take your life. The loss of your second mate
while reefing a sail. Your release by one of the crew, after having been
bound to the mast; the wreck of your vessel; and, finally, our meeting,
which tallies in the minutest particulars." "What!" I exclaimed, in extreme astonishment, "all this she saw--even
the grog barrel?" "All--everything," replied my charmer; "but follow me, and lose no time;
we all await you below." So saying, she beckoned to me with the most bewitching smile, and
floundered away from me, lashing her tail playfully as she went, and
touching the chords of her harp, sang so sweetly, so divinely, some
submarine ditty about fairy palaces, halls of coral, and fair
mermaidens, that all resistance was vain. "Don't be weak, Toughyarn," said the voice again; "resist her wiles, be
deaf to her song." But I was deaf only to the voice that warned me. "Divine enchantress," I cried, "I will follow you wherever you go." A wave now dashed me forward till I found myself by her side. "Are you really willing to accompany me?" she asked, with a gleam that
made me feel--I don't know how. "To the utmost corners of the earth," I replied. "And even to the depths of the ocean?" she asked. "Even there," I replied. "Anywhere, anywhere with thee, for _I love
thee_." The murder was out. She heaved a sigh, and her head sank on my shoulder. "Take care, Toughyarn," said the voice; "be warned ere it be too late." This was the last time the voice spoke to me. It _was_ too late. "And do you really love me?" she asked, gazing up into my face, her
large blue eyes filling with tears. "With all my heart and soul," I replied. "And are you prepared to give me a proof of your love?" "Any proof you may desire, my angel," I answered. "What is it?" "I mean," she said, "would you be ready to make a _very great
sacrifice_?" "Anything," I replied; "anything for thee." "Generous mortal!" she exclaimed, and she sobbed aloud. The sight of beauty in tears always moved me. I was deeply touched at
this outburst of grief on the part of my charmer, and did all I could to
soothe and comfort her. I put my arm round her delicate waist; she
offered no resistance, so, clasping her to my breast, I--I--well,
gentlemen--I kissed her. The lightning played around me; the thunder
crackling, threatened to break the drum of my ear, but I saw nothing, I
heard nothing; I was unconscious of everything around me in that long
loving kiss. My lips seemed glued to hers. I thought I should never be able to tear
myself away. I felt her heart beat violently against my waistcoat. My
blood tingled in my fingers and toes with the intensity of my passion. I
no longer felt cold, for I bore a fire within. When I at length removed my lips from hers, with a prodigious smack, she
fell fainting in my arms. It was as if her whole soul had been poured
forth in that one kiss, and there was none left to re-animate the frail
form. I sprinkled some of her native element in her face, and she
recovered. I petted and caressed her, clasped her again and again to my breast,
while she clung round my neck, confessing her love for me, and begging
me never to desert her. Oh, the rapture of those moments! She vowed that
I was all in all to her, that she had never loved before, and never
should again; that she was mine, body and soul, and that if I ever
ceased to love her, she should die. She called me her own dear Toughyarn, her hero, her "beau ideal," her
lover, her husband. She said that I was her master, and that she would
be my slave for life. I vowed that I was unworthy to pick off the seaweed that adhered to her
tail. At the word "tail," she heaved a deep sigh, and, glancing at my
lower extremities, burst into a fresh flood of tears. I was unable to
account for these weeping fits, to which she seemed subject. "Some female caprice," thought I; "nothing more." "What ails thee, my beloved?" I said, tenderly. "Say why, O bewitching
enchantress, do those pearl drops continue to pay their tiny tribute to
the great ocean?" "Oh!" she cried to herself, clasping her hands and looking upward, "I
feel the sacrifice is _too_ great. It will cost him dearly; but has he
not promised?" "Promised!" I muttered. "What is this sacrifice, I wonder, that she
requires of me? What can it be but always to live with her in her own
home, under the sea. When once my soul is united with hers," I reasoned,
"we shall be one being. I shall be able to live under the water as well
as on _terra firma_. And what have I to make me wish to return to land? I am a widower without family. I've no fortune, in fact, I am all but a
ruined man, and I feel anxious to begin a new phase of existence. The
sacrifice, after all, is not so great. What does it matter to me where I
live, as long as I can bask the livelong day in the sunshine of such
beauty?" I felt that that long ambrosial kiss, the intensity of which had so
exhausted my beloved, had imparted to me a new life. I no longer dreaded
or believed in the possibility of being drowned. I felt an intense
desire to behold the wonders of the deep, and visit those palaces of
coral and mother-of-pearl that I had so often heard of, so seizing my
beloved by the waist, I exclaimed,

"Come, O joy of my soul; lead me to the hall of thy father. Let us
plunge into the turbulent billows. I thirst for thy element.