repentance; how, without
removing one iota of its guilt or one dread of its probable
consequences, he led me to the one consolation. 'Thy sins, even thine,
shall be forgiven thee,' and then he took me back into the house, cast
down indeed and humbled, but no longer despairing, and led me to Uncle
Rolf.

"'Father,' he said, still holding my hand, perhaps because he felt how
I trembled, 'father, Crystal has come to ask your pardon and
Margaret's also for the pain she has caused you both, and to say that,
with God's help, she will never offend so again.'

"Never! oh, Raby, never! when the inborn enemy was strong as death and
cruel as the grave. Oh, my good angel, Raby, what have the years
written, against me--against me--your unhappy child?"

CHAPTER XXIV.

A GRAVE DECISION.

From the day
I brought to England my poor searching face
(An orphan even of my father's grave);
He had loved me, watched me, watched his soul in mine,
Which in me grew, and heighten'd into love.

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

"The years rolled by, but, alas! they brought no added happiness with
them. The taint in my nature that had revealed itself so unexpectedly,
only developed more strongly as time went on; at rare intervals--very
rare, I am thankful to say--fierce gusts of passion overmastered my
reason, so that for a brief time I seemed like one possessed with an
evil spirit.

"They tried everything--everything that human wisdom and kindness
could devise to save me from myself, but in vain. All causes for
offense were removed, and every possible means taken to ward off the
threatened excitement; but when the paroxysms came, they wasted no
words, no severity upon me, they simply left me to myself.

"But the punishment that followed was a terrible one. For days and
days after one of these outbreaks, sometimes for a week together, Raby
would refuse to speak to me or to hold any communication at all.

"Our walks and rides, our pleasant studies, were all broken off, every
little office and attention refused, my remarks met by a chilling
manner that drove me to silence.

"Left completely to my own society, I wandered aimlessly about the
house or sat moping over my books or work in a corner. I never sought
to rebel against the rigor of my sentence; it was a just one I knew,
and I bore it as patiently as I could. And then all at once, sometimes
when I least