ing for Congress to adjourn, in
order to have Mr. Chesley's escort across the ocean, and he will
arrive to-morrow. Erle Palma is exceedingly anxious that you should
accompany us, and I trust your mother will sanction this arrangement,
for I should grieve to leave you here. Perhaps you are not aware that
your guardian has recently sold this house, and intends purchasing
one on Murray Hill."

"Mr. Palma cannot possibly desire my departure half so earnestly as I
do, and if I am not summoned to join my mother, I shall insist upon
returning to the convent whence he took me seven years ago. There I
can continue my studies, and there I prefer to remain until I can be
restored to my mother. Olga, how soon will Mr. Palma be married?"

"I do not know. He communicates his plans to no one; but I may safely
say, if he consulted merely his own wishes, it would not be long
delayed. Until quite recently, I did not believe it possible that
that man's cold, proud, ambitious, stony heart would bow before any
woman, but human nature is a riddle which baffles us all--sometimes.
I must dress for the wedding, and mamma will scold me if I am late.
Kiss me, dear child. Ah, velvet violet eyes! if I find a
resting-place in heaven, I shall always want even there to hover near
you."

She kissed the girl's colourless cheek, and left her; and when the
carriage bore Olga and her mother to Mrs. St. Clare's, Regina
retreated to her own room, dreading lest her guardian should return
and find her in the library.

At breakfast he had mentioned that he would dine at his club, in
honour of some eminent judge from a distant State, to whom the
members of the "Century" had tendered a dinner, but she endeavoured
to avoid even the possibility of meeting him alone. Had she been less
merciless in her self-denunciation, his avowed impatience to send her
to her mother might have piqued her pride; but it only increased her
scorn of her own fatal folly, and intensified her desire to leave his
presence. Was it to gratify Mrs. Carew's extravagant taste that he
had sold this elegant house, and designed the purchase of one yet
more costly?

In the midst of her heart-ache she derived some satisfaction from the
reflection, that at least Mr. Palma's wife would never profane the
beautiful library, where his ward had spent so many happy days, and
which was indissolubly linked with sacred memories of its master.
Unwilling to indulge a reverie so fraught with pain and humi