w much was there--is there--in my
nature--in my feelings, which have been, and ever will be, unfathomable
to thy sight!

"But all this matters not; the tie between us is eternally broken. Go,
dear, dear Godolphin! link thyself to that happier other one--seemingly
so much more thine equal than the lowly and uncultivated Lucilla. Grieve
not for me; you have been kind, most kind, to me. You have taken away
hope, but you have given me pride in its stead;--the blow which has
crushed my heart has given strength to my mind. Were you and I left
alone on the earth, we must still be apart; I could never, never live
with you again; my world is not your world; when our hearts have ceased
to be in common, what of union is there left to us? Yet it would be
something if, since the future is shut out from me, you had not also
deprived me of the past: I have not even the privilege of looking back!
What! all the while my heart was lavishing itself upon thee--all the
while I had no other thought, no other dream but thee--all the while
I sat by thy side, and watched thee, hanging on thy wish, striving to
foresee thy thoughts--all the while I was the partner of thy days, and
at night my bosom was thy pillow, and I could not sleep from the bliss
of thinking thee so near me: thy heart was then indeed away from me: thy
thoughts estranged; I was to thee only an encumbrance--a burthen, from
which thy sigh was to be free! Can I ever look back, then, to those
hours we spent together? All that vast history of the past is but one
record of bitterness and shame. And yet I cannot blame thee; it were
something if I could: in proportion as you loved me not, you were kind
and generous; and God will bless you for that kindness to the poor
orphan. A harsh word, a threatening glance, I never had the affliction
to feel from thee. Tracing the blighted past, I am only left to sadden
at that gentleness which never came from love!

"Go, Godolphin--I repeat the prayer in all humbleness and sincerity--go
to her whom thou lovest, perhaps as I loved thee; go, and in your
happiness I shall feel at last something of happiness myself. We part
for ever, but there is no unkindness between us; there is no reproach
that one can make against the other. If I have sinned, it has been
against Heaven and not thee; and thou--why, even against Heaven mine was
all the fault--the rashness the madness! You will return to your native
land; to that proud England, of which I have so o