lips quivered as he murmured, in half-smothered
tones: "And she--the beautiful, the lost one--what will become of her?"

"Oh, Harrison," I cried, "do speak out; do not torture me with these
dark hints. If you are a true friend, give me your whole confidence,
nor let your silence give rise to painful conjectures and doubts. I
have no concealments from you. Such mental reservation on your part is
every thing but kind."

"I frankly acknowledge that you have just cause to suspect me," said
George, with his usual sad, winning smile. "But this is not a safe
place to discuss matters of vital interest to us both--matters which
involve life and death. I trust to clear up the mystery one of these
days, and for that purpose I am here. But tell me: how did Moncton
receive this woman--this Dinah North?"

I related the scene. When I repeated the contents of the note, his calm
face crimsoned with passion, his eyes flashed, and his lips quivered
with indignation.

"Yes, I thought it would come to that; unhappy, miserable Alice! how
could you bestow the affections of a warm, true heart on a despicable
wretch like Theophilus Moncton. The old fiend's ambition and this fatal
passion have been your ruin."

For some time he remained with his face bowed upon his hands. At
length, raising his head, and turning to me with great animation, he
asked if I knew any of my father's relations, besides Robert Moncton
and his son?

"I was not aware that I had any other relatives."

"They are by no means a prolific race, Geoffrey. And has your
insatiable curiosity never led you to make the inquiry?"

"I dared not ask my uncle. My aunt told me that, but for them, I should
be alone in the world. It was a subject never discussed before me," I
continued, after a long pause, in which George seemed busy with his own
thoughts. "I understood that my uncle had only one brother."

"True," said George, "but he has a cousin; a man of great wealth and
consequence. Did you never hear Theophilus mention Sir Alexander
Moncton?"

"Never."

"Nor to whom his long visits in Yorkshire were made?"

"How should I? No confidence existed between us. I was indifferent to
all his movements; not imagining that they could in any degree interest
me."

"I begin to see my way through this tangled maze," returned George,
musingly. "I now understand the secluded manner in which you have been
brought up; and their reasons for keeping you a prisoner within these
walls. Th