d then, as if resigning his former prayer, he said: "Well,
then, be it so; even in the presence of those who judge me so severely,
I will speak at least." He paused, and throwing into his voice a passion
that, had the repugnance at his guilt been less, would not have been
without pathos, he continued to address Fanny: "I own that when I first
saw you I might have thought of love as the poor and ambitious think
of the way to wealth and power. Those thoughts vanished, and nothing
remained in my heart but love and madness. I was as a man in a delirium
when I planned this snare. I knew but one object, saw but one heavenly
vision. Oh! mine--mine at least in that vision--are you indeed lost to
me forever?"

There was that in this man's tone and manner which, whether arising
from accomplished hypocrisy or actual, if perverted, feeling, would,
I thought, find its way at once to the heart of a woman who, however
wronged, had once loved him; and with a cold misgiving, I fixed my
eyes on Miss Trevanion. Her look, as she turned with a visible tremor,
suddenly met mine, and I believe that she discerned my doubt; for
after suffering her eyes to rest on my own with something of mournful
reproach, her lips curved as with the pride, of her mother, and for the
first time in my life I saw anger on her brow.

"It is well, sir, that you have thus spoken to me in the presence of
others, for in their presence I call upon you to say, by that honor
which the son of this gentleman may for a while forget, but cannot
wholly forfeit,--I call upon you to say whether, by deed, word, or sign,
I, Frances Trevanion, ever gave you cause to believe that I returned the
feeling you say you entertained for me, or encouraged you to dare this
attempt to place me in your power."

"No!" cried Vivian, readily, but with a writhing lip, "no; but where I
loved so deeply, perilled all my fortune for one fair and free occasion
to tell you so alone, I would not think that such love could meet only
loathing and disdain. What! has Nature shaped me so unkindly that where
I love no love can reply? What! has the accident of birth shut me out
from the right to woo and mate with the high-born? For the last, at
least that gentleman in justice should tell you since it has been his
care to instil the haughty lesson into me, that my lineage is one
that befits lofty hopes and warrants fearless ambition. My hopes, my
ambition--they were you Oh, Miss Trevanion, it is true that to