ameless."

"Beyond question; but this sacrifice must be made to my mother's
spirit. It is now nine; the breakfast-bell will soon ring, and then
we are promised the whole of the melancholy tale. Pray with me, Eve,
that it may be such as will not wound the ear of a son!"

Eve took the hand of Paul within both of hers, and kissed it with a
sort of holy hope, that in its exhibition caused neither blush nor
shame. Indeed so bound together were these young hearts, so ample and
confiding had been the confessions of both, and so pure was their
love, that neither regarded such a manifestation of feeling,
differently from what an acknowledgement of a dependence on any other
sacred principle would have been esteemed. The bell now summoned them
to the breakfast-table, and Eve, yielding to her sex's timidity,
desired Paul to precede her a few minutes, that the sanctity of their
confidence might not be weakened by the observation of profane eyes.

The meal was silent; the discovery of the previous night, which had
been made known to all in the house, by the declarations of John
Effingham as soon as he was restored to his senses, Captain Ducie
having innocently collected those within hearing to his succour,
causing a sort of moral suspense that weighed on the vivacity if not
on the comforts of the whole party, the lovers alone excepted.

As profound happiness is seldom talkative, the meal was a silent one,
then; and when it was ended, they who had no tie of blood with the
parties most concerned with the revelations of the approaching
interview, delicately separated, making employments and engagements
that left the family at perfect liberty; while those who had been
previously notified that their presence would be acceptable, silently
repaired to the dressing-room of John Effingham. The latter party was
composed of Mr. Effingham, Paul, and Eve, only. The first passed into
his cousin's bed-room, where he had a private conference that lasted
half an hour. At the end of that time, the two others were summoned
to join him.

John Effingham was a strong-minded and a proud man, his governing
fault being the self-reliance that indisposed him to throw himself on
a greater power, for the support, guidance, and counsel, that all
need. To humiliation before God, however, he was not unused, and of
late years it had got to be frequent with him, and it was only in
connexion with his fellow-creatures that his repugnance to admitting
even of an e