and exposure. If you
will allow no common prejudices, no vulgar scruples to stand
in the way of the good you may effect, then, Ellen, there may
be better days in store for us all.

"Remember to announce your marriage in form to us, as soon as
it is declared; and remember also, that I will be guarded,
prudent, and considerate, as long as you show me unlimited
confidence. I cannot answer for my self if caprice, or unjust
apprehensions, should estrange you from me.

"Once more, farewell,

"And God bless you!

"Your devoted

"Henry Lovell."

This letter dropt from my hands as I read the last words, and
a tumultuous rush of feelings made my heart throb with
indefinable emotion. In my most sanguine moments I had not
perhaps anticipated so favourable an answer, nor hoped that
Henry would have exerted himself so earnestly in my behalf;
and yet I felt more afraid of him and of his power than ever,
as I saw his determination in some manner or other to link his
fate with mine, and to make his conduct to me to depend upon
mine. There was something fearful in the conditions in the
frail tenure under which alone I was to escape the threatened
vengeance of Mrs. Tracy. There was something horribly
humiliating in the terms (however veiled in plausible
language) which Henry was evidently prescribing to me as the
price of his protection. I was never a self-deceiver, and I
saw clearly through the shallow pretence of better hopes for
the future--of kindness to Alice--of help to pursue the better
course--his unswerving determination never to give up those
habits of intimacy, which would give full scope for the
exercise of his secret power. I did not charge him with
hypocrisy, nor with malice; no, he was only selfish, selfish
to the very heart's core. I read his letter again, and when he
bade me think of him, even at the altar, even when pledging my
faith to Edward, I murmured to myself, "Ever between him and
me, in thought if not in deed; ever with thy smooth tongue,
thy determination strong as iron, and thy character pliant as
steel; ever claiming thy share in my heart, and thy place in
my thoughts; ever toiling for thine own ends, and hinting at
revenge, even while boasting of thy love, and of the
sacrifices it makes."

As this mental accusation passed through my mind, I felt its
harshness, its ingratitude, and as usual, having begun by
condemning him, I ended by hating myself. I could not but
acknowledge that all he said