erwise so worn.

As Percival gazed, and, while gazing, saw those wandering eyes bent
down, and yet felt they watched him, a thrill almost of fear shot
through his heart. Nevertheless, so much more impressionable was he to
charitable and trustful than to suspicious and timid emotions that when
Madame Dalibard, suddenly looking up and shaking her head gently, said,
"You see but a sad wreck, young kinsman," all those instincts, which
Nature itself seemed to dictate for self-preservation, vanished into
heavenly tenderness and pity.

"Ah!" he said, rising, and pressing one of those deadly hands in both
his own, while tears rose to his eyes,--"Ah! since you call me kinsman,
I have all a kinsman's privileges. You must have the best advice, the
most skilful surgeons. Oh, you will recover; you must not despond."

Lucretia's lips moved uneasily. This kindness took her by surprise.
She turned desperately away from the human gleam that shot across the
sevenfold gloom of her soul. "Do not think of me," she said, with a
forced smile; "it is my peculiarity not to like allusion to myself,
though this time I provoked it. Speak to me of the old cedar-trees at
Laughton,--do they stand still? You are the master of Laughton now! It
is a noble heritage!"

Then St. John, thinking to please her, talked of the old manor-house,
described the improvements made by his father, spoke gayly of those
which he himself contemplated; and as he ran on, Lucretia's brow, a
moment ruffled, grew smooth and smoother, and the gloom settled back
upon her soul.

All at once she interrupted him. "How did you discover me? Was it
through Mr. Varney? I bade him not mention me: yet how else could you
learn?" As she spoke, there was an anxious trouble in her tone, which
increased while she observed that St. John looked confused.

"Why," he began hesitatingly, and brushing his hat with his hand,
"why--perhaps you may have heard from the--that is--I think there is
a young ----. Ah, it is you, it is you! I see you once again!" And
springing up, he was at the side of Helen, who at that instant had
entered the room, and now, her eyes downcast, her cheeks blushing, her
breast gently heaving, heard, but answered not that passionate burst of
joy.

Startled, Madame Dalibard (her hands firmly grasping the sides of her
chair) contemplated the two. She had heard nothing, guessed nothing
of their former meeting. All that had passed before between them was
unknown to her. Y