ia caught at the check-string. "Stop," she
exclaimed,--"stop! I will not, I cannot, endure this suspense to last
through a life! I will learn the worst. Bid him drive back."

"We must descend and walk; you forget we must enter unsuspected;" and
Dalibard, as the carriage stopped, opened the door and let down the
steps.

Lucretia recoiled, then pressing one hand to her heart, she descended,
without touching the arm held out to her. Dalibard bade the coachman
wait, and they walked back to the house.

"Yes, he may see her," exclaimed Lucretia, her face brightening. "Ah,
there you have not deceived me; I see your stratagem,--I despise it;
I know she loves him; she has sought this interview. He is so mild and
gentle, so fearful to give pain; he has consented, from pity,--that is
all. Is he not pledged to me? He, so candid, so ingenuous! There must
be truth somewhere in the world. If he is false, where find truth? Dark
man, must I look for it in you,--you?"

"It is not my truth I require you to test; I pretend not to truth
universal; I can be true to one, as you may yet discover. But I own your
belief is not impossible; my interest in you may have made me rash and
unjust,--what you may overhear, far from destroying, may confirm forever
your happiness. Would that it may be so!"

"It must be so," returned Lucretia, with a fearful gloom on her brow and
in her accent; "I will interpret every word to my own salvation."

Dalibard's countenance changed, despite his usual control over it. He
had set all his chances upon this cast, and it was more hazardous than
he had deemed. He had counted too much upon the jealousy of common
natures. After all, how little to the ear of one resolved to deceive
herself might pass between these two young persons, meeting not to avow
attachment, but to take courage from each other! What restraint might
they impose on their feelings! Still, the game must be played out.

As they now neared the house, Dalibard looked carefully round, lest they
should encounter Mainwaring on his way to it. He had counted on arriving
before the young man could get there.

"But," said Lucretia, breaking silence, with an ironical
smile,--"but--for your tender anxiety for me has, no doubt, provided all
means and contrivance, all necessary aids to baseness and eavesdropping,
that can assure my happiness--how am I to be present at this interview?"

"I have provided, as you say," answered Dalibard, in the tone of a man
d