ay your heart fully open to me? Did I not do so by
you? Did I not reveal to you even the transient fancy which I
entertained long ago, and which I showed my faith in you, her friend,
by revealing? If you had only done the same--if you had only let me
know, without a hint as to the object, that you had been attached, and
that you believed I might succeed to your affections in time--if you
had done this, I do not say that we should then have been what I so
lately trusted we were to be, for my soul is jealous--has been made so
by what I thought you--and will bear none but a first, and an entire,
and an exclusive love: but in that case I should have cherished you in
my inmost heart, as all that I have believed you to be, though not
destined for me.

"But I do not blame you. You have done what you meant to be right;
though, from too great regard to one set of considerations, you have
mistaken the right, and have sacrificed me. I make allowance for your
difficulty, and, for my own part, pardon you, and testify most
sincerely and earnestly to the purity of your mind and intentions. Do
not reject this parting testimony. I offer it because I would not
have you think me harsh, or suppose that passion has made me unjust.
I love you too deeply to do more than mourn. I have no heart to
blame, except for your want of confidence. Of that I have a right to
complain: but, for the rest, spare yourself the effort of
self-justification. It is not needed. I do not accuse you. You were
right in saying yesterday that I love you still. I shall ever love
you, be our separate lives what they may. God bless you!

"PE."

"Will you not wait, my dearest Margaret?" said Hester, when, within half
an hour of the arrival of Enderby's letter, she met her sister on the
stairs, with the reply in her hand, sealed, and ready to be sent. "Why
such haste? The events of your life may hang on this day, on this one
letter. Can it be right to be so rapid in what you think and do?"

"The event of my life is decided," she replied, "unless--No--the event
of my life _is_ decided. I have nothing more to wait for. I have
written what I think, and it must go."

It was as follows:--

"I have nothing to say in reply to your letter, for I cannot
understand it. Yet I wonder less at your letter than at your having
written it instead of coming to me, to say all that is in your mind.
At some mo