nd
must never be given up for the whim of any one. But, indeed, you need
entertain no apprehensions. I am not marrying the girl for love, so that
she is not likely to gain any ascendancy whatever over me. It is her
fortune and property that have attracted my affections, just as the
title she will enjoy has inveigled those of the old father."

Norton, in deep emotions of gratitude, ably sustained, had already
seized the hand of his patron, and was about to reply--but the effort
was too much for him; his heart was too full; he felt a choking; so,
clapping his handkerchief to his face with one hand, and the other upon
his heart, he rushed out of the room, lest Dunroe might perceive the
incredible force of his affection for him.

The next day, when Dunroe made his appearance in the drawing-room,
Lucy, before descending, felt as one may be supposed to do who stands
upon the brow of a precipice, conscious at the same time that not only
is retreat from this terrible position impossible, but that the plunge
must be made. On this occasion she experienced none of that fierce
energy which sometimes results from despair, and which one might imagine
to have been in accordance with her candid and generous character, when
driven as she was to such a step. On the contrary, she felt calm, cold,
and apathetic. Her pulse could scarcely be perceived by Alley Mahon; and
all the physical powers of life within her seemed as if about to suspend
their functions. Her reason, however, was clear, even to torture. Those
tumultuous vibrations of the spirit--those confused images and unsettled
thoughts of the brain; and all those excited emotions of the heart, that
are usually called into existence in common minds by such scenes, would
have been to her as a relief, in comparison to what she experienced.
In her case there was a tranquillity of agony--a quiet, unresisting
submission--a gentle bowing of the neck to the stake, at the sacrifice
that resulted from the clear perception of her great mind, which
thus, by its very facility of apprehension, magnified the torture she
suffered. Whilst descending the stairs, she felt such a sinking of the
soul within her, as the unhappy wretch does who ascends from those which
lead to that deadly platform from which is taken the terrible spring
into eternity.

On entering the room she saw herself in the large mirror that adorned
the mantel-piece, and felt for the first time as if all this was some
dreadful drea