-he is coming."

Henry rushed to the door and locked it; at the same moment the
handle was seized and turned outside. I grew very pale, but
sprang forward to open it; before I had reached it, Henry had
seized my hands, and in a whisper he said, "As you value your
future peace, do not open it."

"I would die at his feet rather than not let him in."

I disengaged myself from Henry's grasp, and flung open the
door; but whoever had been there was gone, and I heard the one
that led into the hall slammed with violence. I returned into
the room burning with shame and indignation; and throwing
myself down on the chair before the fire, I hid my face in my
hands and refused to listen to Henry.

"Calm yourself, I entreat you," said Henry; "after this it
will not do to appear again with red and swollen eyes.
Besides, I must speak to you--I must tell you about Harding."

I got up with the courage of despair, and the recklessness of
a nature that was growing hardened, and listened in silence to
his recital of the scene he had had with that wild man, who
seemed careless of all ties and considerations, save the one
feeling which overruled all others in his strange nature--his
unconquerable and hopeless attachment to Alice.

"I have borne much for your sake, to-day, Ellen; it is well
for us both that I have more self-command than you have. That
coarse and vulgar lout knows my secrets as well as yours; he
almost threw into my face the money I offered him. He almost
called me a villain, and I was forced to bear with it all, and
even to let him depart with nothing but a silent curse, when
he said 'Make Alice happy, and I will hold my tongue, and only
thank God that though I'm a blackguard, I'm no thief; and
though I've knocked down many a man, I've never killed a
child; but if you bring tears into her eyes, and break her
heart, my name is not Robert Harding, or there are no clubs or
knives in the world, if I do not give you a taste of mine.'
Now you know why I came home with the spirit of a demon and
the temper of a fiend, and vented upon you the tortures I had
been enduring. Oh, Ellen, we cannot bear this life much
longer; if you could but--"

"Ellen! Ellen! where are you? The Brandons are arrived, and
have been asking for you over and over again. Mr. Middleton
and Edward wish you to come down directly."

I rushed down the steps of the turret stairs, at the bottom of
which my aunt was standing, and went with her into the
lib