ften questioned you,
and which, even in your answers, seems to me so cold and desolate a
spot,--a land so hostile to love. There, in your new ties, you will
learn new objects, and you will be too busy, and too happy, for your
thoughts to turn to me again. Too happy?--No, I wish I could think you
would be; but I whom you deny to possess sympathies with you--I have at
least penetrated so far into your heart as to fear that, come what may,
you will never find the happiness you ask. You exact too much, you dream
too fondly, not to be discontented with the truth. What has happened
to me must happen to my rival--will happen to you throughout life. Your
being is in one world, your soul is in another. Alas! how foolishly I
run on, as if seeking in your nature and not circumstances, the blow
that separates us.

"I shall hasten to a conclusion. I have gained a refuge in this convent;
seek me not, follow me not, I implore, I adjure thee; it can serve no
purpose. I would not see thee; the veil is already drawn between thy
world and me, and it only remains, in kindness and in charity, to bid
each other farewell. Farewell, then! I think I am now with thee; I think
my lips have breathed aside thy long hair, and cling to thy fair temples
with a sister's---that word, at least, is left me--a sister's kiss. As
we stood together, at the grey dawn, when we last parted--as then, in
sorrow and in tears, I hid my face in thy bosom--as then, unconscious
of what was to come, I poured forth my assurances of faithful unswerving
thought--as thrice thou didst tear thyself from me and didst thrice
return--and as, through the comfortless mists of morn I gazed after
thee, and fancied for hours that thy last words yet rang in my ear;
so now, but with different feelings, I once more bid thee
farewell--farewell for ever!"

CHAPTER XLIV.

GODOLPHIN.

"No, signor, she will not see you!"

"You have given my note--given that ring?"

"I have, and she still refuses."

"Refuses?--and is that all the answer? no line to--to soften the reply?"

"Signor, I have spoken all my message."

"Cruel, hard-hearted! May I call again, think you, with a better
success?"

"The convent, at stated times, is open to strangers, signor; but so far
as the young signora is concerned I feel assured, from her manner, that
your visits will be in vain."

"Ay--ay, I understand you, madam; you wish to entice her from the wicked
world,--to suffer not human friendships to