t passed between Miss Minerva and
me, when I went to her room; and you will know what I felt on hearing
her spoken of as 'a rival.' My sense of justice refused to believe it.
But, oh, my dear old nurse, there was some deeper sense in me that said,
as if in words, It is true!

"Mrs. Gallilee went on, without mercy.

"'I know her thoroughly; I have looked into her false heart. Nobody has
discovered her but me. Charge her with it, if you like; and let her deny
it if she dare. Miss Minerva is secretly in love with my son.'

"She got up. Her object was gained: she was even with me, and with the
woman who had befriended me, at last.

"'Lie down in your bed again,' she said, 'and think over what I have
told you. In your own interests, think over it well.'

"I was left alone.

"Shall I tell you what saved me from sinking under the shock?
Ovid--thousands and thousands of miles away--Ovid saved me.

"I love him with all my heart and soul; and I do firmly believe that
I know him better than I know myself. If his mother had betrayed Miss
Minerva to him, as she has betrayed her to me, that unhappy woman would
have had his truest pity. I am as certain of this, as I am that I see
the moon, while I write, shining on my bed. Ovid would have pitied her.
And I pitied her.

"I wrote the lines that follow, and sent them to her by the maid. In the
fear that she might mistake my motives, and think me angry and
jealous, I addressed her with my former familiarity by her christian
name:--"'Last night, Frances, I ventured to ask if you loved some one
who did not love you. And you answered by saying to me, Guess who he is.
My aunt has just told me that he is her son. Has she spoken the truth?'

"I am now waiting to receive Miss Minerva's reply.

"For the first time since I have been in the house, my door is locked. I
cannot, and will not, see Mrs. Gallilee again. All her former cruelties
are, as I feel it, nothing to the cruelty of her coming here when I am
ill, and saying to me what she has said.

"The weary time passes, and still there is no reply. Is Frances angry?
or is she hesitating how to answer me--personally or by writing? No! she
has too much delicacy of feeling to answer in her own person.

"I have only done her justice. The maid has just asked me to open the
door. I have got my answer. Read it."

"'Mrs. Gallilee has spoken the truth.

"'How I can have betrayed myself so that she has discovered my miserable
secret is