nd I darted away from
him, unable to bear the shame and the misery I was enduring;
for now it seemed to me that I had added hypocrisy to my
guilt; that I had hardened my heart against the best impulse I
had yet experienced, and that I had deceived the minister of
God, whose praises sounded like curses in my ears.

I attended the afternoon service in a more reckless mood than
ever; and that day at dinner, and during all the evening, was
more feverishly gay, more wildly excited than usual; and Henry
Lovell, who seemed struck with the strangeness of my manner,
for the first time made love to me without reserve. The
language of passion was new to my ears; his words made my
heart throb and my cheeks bum; but even while he spoke, and
while under the influence of a bewildering excitement, which
made me feel, for the time, as if I shared his sentiments, I
once thought of the crusader. I saw a pale, calm face, with
its well known features, under the warrior's helmet; and I
felt that to lie down and die by his side would be happiness
compared to such a life as mine.

A few days after this, we were all sitting in the drawing-room
at about twelve o'clock; the day was not tempting, and instead
of going out, we had settled to work, while Sir Edmund and
Henry alternately read out loud to us; but Rosa Moore, when
she heard the plan proposed, screwed up her lips into a
decided expression of disapprobation, and slipt out of the
room with the look of a child who has escaped its lesson. Two
hours after she came in again, and sat down quietly in a chair
opposite me; she looked red and out of breath, but a look of
mischief and amusement was sparkling in her eyes. She listened
patiently to the conclusion of the tragedy, which Sir Edmund
was reading well, though rather too theatrically for the
occasion; and when the different remarks upon it had subsided,
she turned to Henry, and with perfect gravity, but a most
mischievous look in her eyes, said to him, "Mr. Lovell, I am
sorry to have to break it to you, but, upon pain of death, we
must marry immediately."

"I never dreamt of such an honour," said Henry, laughing; "but
if there is no other alternative, I can resign myself. But who
lays down this law?"

"A gentleman who shortened my walk this morning, for I had no
intention of coming home before the end of the tragedy."

"Who can you mean?"

"Somebody who must be either your best friend or your worst
enemy, by the interest he seems