of it, and she spoke to him. Very soon now, should it be, was his
answer, and she continued to live on--in hope."

"Go on, Blanche," cried Alice, who had grown interested in the tale,
never suspecting that it could bear a personal interest.

"Yes, I will go on. Would you believe, Alice, that almost immediately
after this last promise, he saw one whom he fancied he should like
better, and asked her to be his wife, forsaking the one to whom he was
bound by every tie of honor--repudiating all that had been between them,
even his own words and promises?"

"How disgraceful! Were they married?"

"They are to be. Would you have such a man?"

"I!" returned Alice, quite indignant at the question. "It is not likely
that I would."

"That man, Alice is Sir Francis Levison."

Alice Challoner gave a start, and her face became scarlet. "How dare you
say so, Blanche? It is not true. Who was the girl, pray? She must have
traduced him."

"She has not traduced him," was the subdued answer. "The girl was
myself."

An awkward pause. "I know!" cried Alice, throwing back her head
resentfully. "He told me I might expect something of this--that you had
fancied him in love with you, and were angry because he had chosen me."

Blanche turned upon her with streaming eyes; she could no longer control
her emotion. "Alice, my sister, all the pride is gone out of me; all the
reticence that woman loves to observe as to her wrongs and her inward
feelings I have broken through for you this night. As sure as there is a
heaven above us, I have told you the truth. Until you came I was engaged
to Francis Levison."

An unnatural scene ensued. Blanche, provoked at Alice's rejection of her
words, told all the ill she knew or heard of the man; she dwelt upon
his conduct with regard to Lady Isabel Carlyle, his heartless
after-treatment of that unhappy lady. Alice was passionate and fiery.
She professed not to believe a word of her sister's wrongs, and as to
the other stories, they were no affairs of hers, she said: "what had she
to do with his past life?"

But Alice Challoner did believe; her sister's earnestness and distress,
as she told the tale, carried conviction with them. She did not very
much care for Sir Francis; he was not entwined round her heart, as he
was round Blanche's; but she was dazzled with the prospect of so good a
settlement in life, and she would not give him up. If Blanche broke her
heart--why, she must break it. But she need n