r impulsive nature to do this. She said, "Give me your hand
to encourage me, and let me speak while I can." I gave her my hand, poor
soul. I said, "Speak to me, my dear, as if I were your father."

So far as I could understand the incoherent statement which she
addressed to me, she had been the object of admiration (while visiting
Maplesworth) of two gentlemen, who both desired to marry her. Hesitating
between them and perfectly inexperienced in such matters, she had been
the unfortunate cause of enmity between the rivals, and had returned to
Nettlegrove, at her aunt's suggestion, as the best means of extricating
herself from a very embarrassing position. The removal failing to
alleviate her distressing recollections of what had happened, she and
her aunt had tried a further change by making a tour of two months on
the Continent. She had returned in a more quiet frame of mind. To her
great surprise, she had heard nothing of either of her two suitors, from
the day when she left Maplesworth to the day when she presented herself
at my rectory.

Early that morning she was walking, after breakfast, in the park at
Nettlegrove when she heard footsteps behind her. She turned, and found
herself face to face with one of her suitors at Maplesworth. I am
informed that there is no necessity now for my suppressing the name. The
gentleman was Captain Stanwick.

He was so fearfully changed for the worse that she hardly knew him
again.

After his first glance at her, he held his hand over his bloodshot eyes
as if the sunlight hurt them. Without a word to prepare her for the
disclosure, he confessed that he had killed Mr. Varleigh in a duel.
His remorse (he declared) had unsettled his reason: only a few days had
passed since he had been released from confinement in an asylum.

"You are the cause of it," he said wildly. "It is for love of you. I
have but one hope left to live for--my hope in you. If you cast me off,
my mind is made up. I will give my life for the life that I have taken;
I will die by my own hand. Look at me, and you will see that I am in
earnest. My future as a living man depends on your decision. Think of
it to-day, and meet me here to-morrow. Not at this time; the horrid
daylight feels like fire in my eyes, and goes like fire to my brain.
Wait till sunset--you will find me here."

He left her as suddenly as he had appeared. When she had sufficiently
recovered herself to be able to think, she decided on saying noth