his changeableness. But this is not why I ask the question. I
think you must have seen something else that I have been observing, and
if you care about her, even for my sake, it is enough."

Here Philip started, and felt relieved.

"You must be her friend," continued Hope, eagerly. "She has changed her
whole manner and habits very fast. Blanche Ingleside and that set seem
to have wholly controlled her, and there is something reckless in all
her ways. You are the only person who can help her."

"How?"

"I do not know how," said Hope, almost impatiently. "You know how. You
have wonderful influence. You saved her before, and will do it again. I
put her in your hands."

"What can I do for her?" asked he, with a strange mingling of terror and
delight.

"Everything," said she. "If she has your society, she will not care for
those people, so much her inferiors in character. Devote yourself to her
for a time."

"And leave you?" said Philip, hesitatingly.

"Anything, anything," said she. "If I do not see you for a month, I can
bear it. Only promise me two things. First, that you will go to her this
very day. She dines with Mrs. Ingleside."

Philip agreed.

"Then," said Hope, with saddened tones, "you must not say it was I who
sent you. Indeed you must not. That would spoil all. Let her think
that your own impulse leads you, and then she will yield. I know Emilia
enough for that."

Malbone paused, half in ecstasy, half in dismay. Were all the events
of life combining to ruin or to save him? This young girl, whom he so
passionately loved, was she to be thrust back into his arms, and was he
to be told to clasp her and be silent? And that by Hope, and in the name
of duty?

It seemed a strange position, even for him who was so eager for fresh
experiences and difficult combinations. At Hope's appeal he was to risk
Hope's peace forever; he was to make her sweet sisterly affection its
own executioner. In obedience to her love he must revive Emilia's. The
tender intercourse which he had been trying to renounce as a crime
must be rebaptized as a duty. Was ever a man placed, he thought, in a
position so inextricable, so disastrous? What could he offer Emilia? How
could he explain to her his position? He could not even tell her that it
was at Hope's command he sought her.

He who is summoned to rescue a drowning man, knowing that he himself may
go down with that inevitable clutch around his neck, is placed in some
such sit