of Theodore's arrival, unexpectedly made his appearance. Struck
with the utmost consternation at seeing him, he involuntarily receded a
few paces, then suddenly advancing, as if recollecting himself, he gave
him his hand with seeming cordiality.

The natural politeness and civility of the other supplied the place of a
more cordial reception.

Ten thousand fears at once agitated the bosom of Bonville, while he
appeared half frantic with grief and apprehension. Dismay threw a sudden
cloud over his understanding; he was confused in the extreme. He had
intercepted all the letters of Theodore; he secretly reproached himself
for his treacherous conduct.

He now saw the termination of all his hopes. Disappointment he could not
brook, his pride could never submit to it with any degree of
resignation, and the bitterness that pervaded his mind, almost bordered
on phrenzy.

His conscience reproved him for reiterated misrepresentations and
calumnies of Theodore, with which he had harrassed the mind of Alida. He
knew that a discovery must now be made of his perfidy, and on his return
home to the village, he was confined to his room with a sudden illness,
succeeded by a dangerous fever.

CHAPTER XXXII.

O, time! roll on thy wheels, and bring around the period, when
social joy shall smile before me; when in the vernal day of life,
or evening serene, I grow of one dear object more and more
enamoured; while my remembrance swells with many a proof of
interested friendship.

The present situation of Albert was happily independent. The prolific
soil of the estate, on which he lived, furnished him with an ample
abundance. The prospect that surrounded him was inimitably beautiful,
and the peculiar advantages of his eligible situation, was the
admiration of the stranger who frequented the vicinity, or resorted in
the summer season to the neighbouring village.

Albert had descended from an ancient family, he had an estate to
preserve, but not an entailed one, as was the case with many of his
family, at this time in England.

He was a gentleman, placid, humane and generous; altogether
unacquainted with that ambition which sacrifices every thing to the
desire of fortune, and the superfluous splendour that follows in her
train. He was unacquainted with love too, the supreme power of which
absorbs and concentrates all our faculties upon one sole object. That
age of innocent pleasure, and of confident credulity, when