and no hope in the pilgrimage before her.

An hour afterwards Henry Lovell received Mr. Lacy in his room.
He had spoken kindly and tenderly to Mrs. Middleton. When
Alice met him, overcome by the sense of all that they two
alone as yet knew and felt, and by an instinctive dread of the
interview about to take place with Henry, she fell on her
knees before him; he laid his hand upon her head, and said in
a voice which trembled with emotion--

"The blessing of an old man be upon you, my daughter; and may
the God whose servant I am never forsake you in life or in
death."

Alice rose and fixed her earnest eyes on Mr. Lacy's venerable
countenance, and said slowly and solemnly--

"You have brought us tidings of mournful joy, and you will
carry back with you tidings of peace and of hope to poor
Ellen's dying spirit. Oh, Mr. Lacy, have you not a blessing to
leave behind you? Have you no words of peace to speak to him,
even to him who is now waiting for you? I know not in what
spirit he will receive you. Dark shades sweep over his soul,
and his sufferings are terrible. He is recovering slowly from
a brain fever--"

Henry opened the door of the adjoining room. The colour of his
face was changed; he looked quite unlike himself; and Alice
started at the strange sound of his voice, when he said, "Do
not detain Mr. Lacy, Alice: my time is short, and I have much
to say to him."

Mr. Lacy followed him into his study; he shut the door, and
begged him to sit down. He looked at him steadily for a
minute, and then said--

"You know all my history?"

"Some parts of it," Mr. Lacy replied.

"You know, then, that you speak to a man who has destroyed, by
a series of iniquitous persecutions, a woman whom he so
devotedly loved that even now--"

"Mr. Lovell, I am not come here to listen to the avowal of an
unholy passion; I am come to bring you that forgiveness which
you so much need, and to claim from you a confession--"

"Stop, Mr. Lacy; you must listen to me, or you will drive me
mad," said Henry, with a terrible laugh, "and then what
confession will you get? Listen to me. I love Ellen Middleton
so passionately, that were I not dying myself, I could not
even now do her justice. Though two hours ago I fancied I
could have given my existence only to know her alive and in
her husband's arms, even though I might never see her again,
yet _now_--_now_ that I have heard of her,--that I see you who
have seen her face and heard her voi