m with hope or comfort.

"The consolation I allude to, Alice, is the well-known fact that a
broken heart cannot long be the subject of sorrow; and, besides, my
farewell of life will not be painful; for then I shall be able to
reflect with peace that, difficult as was the duty imposed upon me, I
shall have performed it. Now, dear Alice, withdraw; I wish to be alone
for some time, that I may reflect as I ought, and endeavor to gain
strength for the sacrifice that is before me."

Her eye as she looked upon Alley was, though filled with a melancholy
lustre, expressive at the same time of a spirit so lofty, calm, and
determined, that its whole character partook of absolute sublimity.
Alley, in obedience to her words, withdrew; but not without an anxious
and earnest effort at imparting comfort.

When her maid had retired, Lucy began once more to examine her position,
in all its dark and painful aspects, and to reflect upon the destiny
which awaited her, fraught with unexampled misery as it was. Though well
aware, from former experience, of her father's hypocritical disguises,
she was too full of generosity and candor to allow her heart
to entertain suspicion. Her nature was one of great simplicity,
artlessness, and truth. Truth, above all things, was her predominant
virtue; and we need not say, that wherever it resides it is certain to
become a guarantee for the possession of all the rest. Her cruel-hearted
father, himself false and deceitful, dreaded her for this love of truth,
and was so well acquainted with her utter want of suspicion, that he
never scrupled, though frequently detected, to impose upon her, when it
suited his purpose. This, indeed, was not difficult; for such was his
daughter's natural candor and truthfulness, that if he deceived her by a
falsehood to-day, she was as ready to believe him to-morrow as ever.
His last heartless act of hypocrisy, therefore, was such a deliberate
violation of truth as amounted to a species of sacrilege; for it robbed
the pure shrine of his own daughter's heart of her whole happiness. Nay,
when we consider the relations in which they stood, it might be termed,
as is beautifully said in Scripture, "a seething of the kid in the
mother's milk."

As it was, however, her father's illness disarmed her generous and
forgiving spirit of every argument that stood in the way of the
determination she had made. His conduct she felt might, indeed, be the
result of one of those great social