ble, nay, certain, then, that the
communication she intended to make to her father and mother, that she
could not love Blacket House, would be received along with the
elucidating commentary, that the lover now despised had discovered her
love intercourse with the heir of Kirkpatrick. She would, therefore, get
no credit for her statement that she never loved her cousin; but would
be set down as a breaker of pledges, and one who traitorously amused
herself with the broken hopes of her unfortunate lovers. Whether she
made the communication or not, it would be made by Blacket House, whose
fear of losing the object of his affections, or his revenge--whichever
of the two moved him--would force him to the immediate disclosure. The
serenity of the domestic peace and happiness of Kirconnel House would be
clouded for the first time, and that by the disobedience of one who had
heretofore been held to contribute, in no small degree, to that which
she was to be the means of destroying, perhaps for ever. The contrast
between the confidence, the hope, and the affection with which she had
been, by her parents, contemplated, and fondly cherished, during all the
bygone part of her life, and the new-discovered treachery into which her
secret love for a stranger would be construed, was a thought she could
scarcely bear. These and a thousand other things passed through her
thoughts with a rapidity which did not lessen the burning pain of their
impress upon her mind; and the repetition of a thousand reflections,
fears, and hopes, produced in the end a confusion that terrified sleep
from her pillow, and consigned her to the powers of anguish for the
remainder of the night and morning.

She rose with a burning cheek and a high-fluttering pulse, produced by
the fever of mind under which she still laboured. She opened the
casement to let in the cool breeze of morning to brace her nerves, and
enable her to stand an interview with her father and mother, who might
already (for Blacket House was at Kirconnel at all hours) be in
possession of the secret of what they conceived to be their once-loved
Helen's disobedience and treachery. Her own communication, which she had
pledged herself to Kirkpatrick to make, was now invested with treble
terrors; and though she knew that her safety and happiness depended upon
an open declaration, she felt herself totally unable to make it.
Trembling and irresolute, she approached the parlour where her father
and moth