les.

My companion gravely took my arm, and leading me away to the garden, thus
answered my question,--'She is at Grassdale Manor, in --shire.'

'Where?' cried I, with a convulsive start.

'At Grassdale Manor.'

'How was it?' I gasped. 'Who betrayed her?'

'She went of her own accord.'

'Impossible, Lawrence! She could not be so frantic!' exclaimed I,
vehemently grasping his arm, as if to force him to unsay those hateful
words.

'She did,' persisted he in the same grave, collected manner as before;
'and not without reason,' he continued, gently disengaging himself from
my grasp. 'Mr. Huntingdon is ill.'

'And so she went to nurse him?'

'Yes.'

'Fool!' I could not help exclaiming, and Lawrence looked up with a rather
reproachful glance. 'Is he dying, then?'

'I think not, Markham.'

'And how many more nurses has he? How many ladies are there besides to
take care of him?'

'None; he was alone, or she would not have gone.'

'Oh, confound it! This is intolerable!'

'What is? That he should be alone?'

I attempted no reply, for I was not sure that this circumstance did not
partly conduce to my distraction. I therefore continued to pace the walk
in silent anguish, with my hand pressed to my forehead; then suddenly
pausing and turning to my companion, I impatiently exclaimed, 'Why did
she take this infatuated step? What fiend persuaded her to it?'

'Nothing persuaded her but her own sense of duty.'

'Humbug!'

'I was half inclined to say so myself, Markham, at first. I assure you
it was not by my advice that she went, for I detest that man as fervently
as you can do,--except, indeed, that his reformation would give me much
greater pleasure than his death; but all I did was to inform her of the
circumstance of his illness (the consequence of a fall from his horse in
hunting), and to tell her that that unhappy person, Miss Myers, had left
him some time ago.'

'It was ill done! Now, when he finds the convenience of her presence, he
will make all manner of lying speeches and false, fair promises for the
future, and she will believe him, and then her condition will be ten
times worse and ten times more irremediable than before.'

'There does not appear to be much ground for such apprehensions at
present,' said he, producing a letter from his pocket. 'From the account
I received this morning, I should say--'

It was her writing! By an irresistible impulse I held out my hand, and
the words,