uniting justice to the rightful inheritor with care for a secret so
important to the honour of his aunt, of Richard King himself,--his
benefactor,--of the illustrious house from which Lady Janet had sprung.
Perhaps, too, the consideration that by this course a fortune so useful
to his career was secured was not without influence on the mind of a
man naturally ambitious. But on that consideration he forbade himself to
dwell. He put it away from him as a sin. Yet, to marriage with any one
else, until his mission was fulfilled, and the uncertainty as to the
extent of his fortune was dispelled, there interposed grave practical
obstacles. How could he honestly present himself to a girl and to her
parents in the light of a rich man, when in reality he might be but a
poor man? How could he refer to any lawyer the conditions which rendered
impossible any settlement that touched a shilling of the large sum which
at any day he might have to transfer to another? Still, when once fully
conspicuous how deep was the love with which Isaura had inspired him,
the idea of wedlock with the daughter of Richard King, if she yet lived
and was single, became inadmissible. The orphan condition of the young
Italian smoothed away the obstacles to proposals of marriage which
would have embarrassed his addresses to girls of his own rank, and with
parents who would have demanded settlements. And if he had found Isaura
alone on that day on which he had seen her last, he would doubtless have
yielded to the voice of his heart, avowed his love, wooed her own, and
committed both to the tie of betrothal. We have seen how rudely such
yearnings of his heart were repelled on that last interview. His English
prejudices were so deeply rooted, that, even if he had been wholly free
from the trust bequeathed to him, he would have recoiled from marriage
with a girl who, in the ardour for notoriety, could link herself
with such associates as Gustave Rameau, by habits a Bohemian, and by
principles a Socialist.

In flying from Paris, he embraced the resolve to banish all thought of
wedding Isaura, and to devote himself sternly to the task which had so
sacred a claim upon him. Not that he could endure the idea of marrying
another, even if the lost heiress should be all that his heart could
have worshipped, had that heart been his own to give; but he was
impatient of the burden heaped on him,--of the fortune which might not
be his, of the uncertainty which paralyzed a