more. The only girl I
love in the sense you mane, is Mave Sullivan. I could not tell you an
untruth, Sarah; nor don't desave yourself. I like you, but I love her."

She started up, and in an instant dashed the tears from her cheeks;
after which she said:

"I am glad to know it; you have said the truth--the bitther truth; ay,
bitther it will prove, Condy Dalton, to more than me. My happiness in
this world is now over forever. I never was happy; an' its clear that
the doom is against me; I never will be happy. I am now free to act as I
like. No matther what I do, it can't make me feel more than I feel now.
I might take a life; ay, twenty, an' I couldn't feel more miserable than
I am. Then, what is there to prevent me from workin' out my own will,
an' doin' what my father wishes? I may make myself worse an' guiltier;
but unhappier I cannot be. That poor, weak hope was all I had in this
world; but that is gone; and I have no other hope now."

"Compose yourself, dear Sarah; calm yourself," said Dalton.

"Don't call me dear Sarah," she replied; "you were wrong ever to do so.
Oh, why was I born! an' what has this world an' this life been to me but
hardship an' sorrow? But still," she added, drawing herself up, "I will
let you all see what pride can do. I now know my fate, an' what I must
suffer: an' if one tear would gain your love, I wouldn't shed it--never,
never."

"Sarah," said Mary, in a soothing voice, "I hope you won't blame poor
Con. You don't know maybe that himself an' Mave Sullivan has loved one
another ever since they were--"

"No more about Mave Sullivan," she replied, almost fiercely; "lave her
to me. As for me, I'll not brake my word, either for good or evil; I
was never the one to do an ungenerous--an ungenerous--no--" She paused,
however, as if struck by some latent conviction, and, in a panting
voice, she added, "I must lave you for a while, but I will be back in an
hour or two; oh, yes I will; an' in the mane time, Mary, anything that
is to be done, you can do it for me till I come agin. Mave Sullivan!
Mave Sullivan! lave Mave Sullivan to me!"

She then threw an humble garment about her, and in a few minutes was
on her way to have an interview with her father. On reaching home, she
found that he had arrived only a few minutes before her; and to
her surprise he expressed something like; good humor, or, perhaps,
gratification at her presence there. On looking into her face more
closely, however, he ha