ver the house.

The hot blood was coursing thick and fast in her veins, and evil
purposes brooded darkly over her oppressed and throbbing heart. She
was thoroughly cognizant of the intense admiration with which Mr.
Granville regarded her, and to-night she had compared his handsome
face with the older, graver, and less regular features of Dr. Grey,
and wondered why the latter was so much more fascinating. Her beauty
transcended Muriel's, and it would prove an easy task to supplant her
in the affections of her not very ardent lover. Life in Paris, spiced
with the political intrigues incident to diplomatic circles, would
divert her thoughts, and might possibly make the coming years
endurable. Was the game worth the candle? No thought of Muriel's
misery entered for an instant into this entirely sordid calculation,
or would have deterred her even momentarily, had it presented itself
in expostulation. The girl's heart had suddenly grown callous, and her
hand would have ruthlessly smitten down any object that dared to cross
her path, or retard the accomplishment of her schemes. Weary at last
of pacing the dim starlit avenue, and yet too wretched to think of
sleeping, she re-entered the house, and cautiously locking the door,
threw herself into a corner of the parlor sofa, which stood just
beneath the portrait she so often studied.

If she had not at this juncture been completely absorbed in gazing
upon it, she might have seen the original, who soon rose and came
forward from the shadow of the curtains.

"Salome, I wish to make you my confidante,--to tell you something
which I have not yet mentioned even to Janet. Can I trust you, little
sister?"

Resting against the arm of the sofa, he looked intently into her face,
reading its perturbed lines.

"I presume you are amusing yourself by tantalizing my curiosity, as
your experiments appear to have thoroughly satisfied you that I am
utterly unworthy of trust. I follow the flattering advice you were so
kind as to give me some time since, and make no promises, which
shatter like crystal under the hammer of the first temptation. You
see, sir, you are teaching me to be cautious."

"You are teaching yourself lessons in dissimulation and maliciousness,
that you will heartily rue some day, but your repentance will come too
tardily to mend the mischief."

She tried to screen her countenance, but he was in no mood for
trifling, and putting his palm under her chin, forced her to sub