The first indications of consciousness were, if
possible, more terrible than the last thoughts that frightened it away.
For a long period she sat upon the couch where she had heard the
dreadful intelligence, and, passing her hand over her brow, tried to
collect her energies, so as to be able to contemplate the full extent of
her evil. She thought she could now see some connection between the
announcement made by her mother and the extraordinary and mysterious
conduct of Blacket House, though she was satisfied that neither of her
parents possessed any knowledge of her intercourse with Kirkpatrick. The
scheme of the early marriage might originate in the fears of her cousin,
while his secresy was only still maintained till he found that she would
not yield to her parents' authority; when would be the time for using
his threat of disclosure to Helen, to compel her consent. All this
reasoning seemed founded in existing circumstances and appearances; but
so confused were her thoughts, and so painful every effort of her mind
to acquire clearer views, that she felt inclined to renounce reasoning
on a subject that seemed at every turn to defeat all her efforts to come
to the real truth. Her misery was at least certain; for now, while the
absolute necessity of a disclosure of her secret love became more
peremptory and inevitable, the circumstances under which it would be
made were such as would add to the unhappiness of her parents, and to
the apparent deceit and treachery of her own nature, which was,
notwithstanding, incapable of guile.

Meanwhile, the effects of so much mental anguish, acting upon a tender
frame, became soon apparent in her pale countenance and swollen eyes.
She would not leave her apartment; and when her mother again visited
her, she saw a change on her daughter very different from that which
accompanies the character of a bride in prospective. The circumstance
surprised the old lady; but still so satisfied was she that there could
exist no objection to a lover whom she had (as was thought) cherished
for years, that it never occurred to her that the change in her daughter
was attributable to the announcement she had made to her; while Helen
herself, oppressed with the secret which she struggled (as yet in vain)
to divulge, shunned a subject which she found herself unable to treat in
such a way as would insure to her relief from her sorrow. Every effort
was made to get her out into the woods, where her former