under
the fervid sun of India, the seal and pen, the blue and gold
Tennyson, and Whittier, and the pretty copy of Christina Rossetti's
poems, he had sent from Liverpool. One by one she read his letters
ending with the last which Mr. Palma had laid on her lap when he left
the carriage.

Despite her efforts, above the dear meek gentle image of the
consecrated and devout missionary towered the stately proud form of
the brilliant lawyer, with his chilling smile and haughty marble
brow; and she knew that he reigned supreme in her heart. He was not
so generous, so nobly self-sacrificing, so holy and pious as Mr.
Lindsay, nor did she reverence him so entirely; but above all else
she loved him. Conscience, pride, and womanly delicacy all clamoured
in behalf of the absent but faithful lover; and the true heart
answered, "Away with sophistry, and gratitude, pitying affection,
and sympathy! I am vassal to but one; give me Erle Palma, my king."

If she married Douglass and he afterward discovered the truth, could
he be happy, could he ever trust her again? She resolved to go to San
Francisco, to tell Mr. Lindsay without reservation all that she felt,
withholding only the name of the man whom she loved best; and if he
could be content with the little she could give in return for his
attachment, then with no deception flitting like a ghoul between
them, she would ask her mother's permission to dedicate the future to
Douglass Lindsay. She would never see her guardian again, and when he
was married it would be sinful even to think of him, and her duties
and new ties must help her to forget him.

Pleading weariness and indisposition, she had absented herself from
dinner, and when night came it was upon leaden wings that oppressed
her. Feverish and restless she raised the sash, and though the
temperature was freezing outside, she leaned heavily on the sill and
inhaled the air. A distant clock struck eleven, and she stood looking
at the moon that flooded the Avenue with splendour, and shone like a
sheet of silver on the glass of a window opposite.

Very soon a peculiarly measured step, slow and firm, rung on the
pavement beneath her, and ere the muffled figure paused at the door,
she recognized her guardian. He entered by means of a latch-key, and
closing the window Regina sat down and listened. Her heart beat like
a drum, drowning other sounds, and all else was so still that after a
little while she supposed no message had been rec