guilty? Was I not wretched? Did I not deserve worse at
his hands? Nay more; _had_ I deserved the forbearance, the
mercy, he had shown me? Ought I not to bless him for them? It
was such thoughts as these that made my tears flow, but that
at the same time soothed the bitterness of my feelings.

I put down my book; and, while gazing on the darkening clumps
of trees before me, I watched the approach of the boy who was
riding through the avenue to the house, with the letter-bag
strapped before him. I heard the step of the servant who was
crossing the hall on his way to my uncle's study. In a few
moments I heard Mrs. Middleton's voice on the stairs; and,
about an hour after that, when it was getting quite dark, and
I was leaving the library, I met Mrs. Swift, who told me that
my aunt wished to speak to me in her dressing-room.

There is something very apt to make one feel nervous in the
fact of being sent for; and if it happens to be immediately
after the arrival of the post, all the more so. I walked
up-stairs in consequence with a kind of feeling that something
had happened or was going to happen; so that when I opened the
door, and saw at one glance that my aunt was much agitated and
in tears, I felt frightened.

"What has happened?" I exclaimed. "What is it? Who is ill?"

"Nobody--nothing of that kind," she replied, "but it is
painful" (she paused, struggled with herself, and went on)--"it
is painful, and you must prepare yourself, my dear child,
to hear something that will shock and grieve you. Henry" (she
looked into my face with intense anxiety)--"Henry has made us
all very unhappy, but _you_, my child, _you_" (she seized both
my hands and put them upon her eyes, as if to give herself
courage to speak) "it will make you miserable. What shall I
say to you, my own love? He is utterly unworthy of you; he has
forgotten you, Ellen--given up all thoughts of you; he is--"

"Is he going to be married?" I eagerly exclaimed, "speak,
dearest aunt, speak--is it so?"

"He is married" (she replied in a tone of deep dejection),
"disgracefully married!"

She looked up in my face, and seemed quite bewildered at the
expression of my countenance. I was expecting her next words
with breathless anxiety, and could only repeat, "To whom, to
whom?"

"You could not have imagined it," she answered--"you could not
have believed it possible; he has married that girl whom you
saw at Bridman--Alice Tracy."

Married to Alice Tracy! W