h to be harsh,
but I must be honest, and our intercourse can never be renewed in
this world.

"In bygone days, when I loved you so fondly and trusted you so
fully, it was my intention to share my fortune with you; and,
since I find that you have not forfeited my confidence in the
purity of your purposes, such is still my wish. I enclose a draft
on my banker, which I hope you will deem sufficient to enable you
to abandon the arduous profession in which you have worn out your
life. If I can feel assured that I have been instrumental in
contributing to the peace and ease of the years that may yet be in
store for you, it will serve as one honeyed drop to sweeten the
dregs of the cup of woe I am draining. Edith, do not refuse the
only aid I can offer you in your loneliness; and accept the
earnest assurance that I shall be grateful for the privilege of
promoting your comfort. Affection and trust I have not, and a few
paltry thousands are all I am now able to bestow. By the love you
once professed, and in the name of that compassion you should feel
for me, I beg of you, despise not the gift; and let the
consciousness that I have saved you from toil and fatigue quiet
the soul and ease the heart of a lonely woman, who has shaken
hands with every earthly hope. I have done my duty, my conscience
is calm and contented, and I sit wearily on the stormy shore of
time, waiting for the tide that will drift into eternity the
desolate, proud soul of

"VASHTI CARLYLE."

Tears rolled over the governess' cheeks, and, refolding the letter,
she said, sorrowfully,--

"My poor, heart-broken Vashti! She has resumed the name which old
Elsie gave her because it was her mother's; and how mournfully
appropriate it has proved. I could be happy if permitted to spend the
residue of my days with her; but she decrees otherwise, and I have no
alternative but submission to her imperious will."

Dr. Grey did not lift his face where the shadow of a great, voiceless
grief hung heavily, and his low tone indexed deep and painful emotion,
when he answered,--

"I sincerely deplore her unfortunate decision, for isolation only
augments the ills from which she suffers. Many months have elapsed
since I saw her last, but Robert Maclean told me to-day that she was
sadly changed in appearance, and seemed in feeble health. She did not
tell you that she had been dangerously ill with varioloid, contracted
while nur