if soul-stricken by
some recollection that unnerved his arm; he shook with unwonted emotion,
and, from the frightful livid aspect of his countenance, Charles dreaded
some serious accession of indisposition, which might, if nothing else
did, prevent him from making the revelation he so much sought to hear
from his lips.

"Varney," he cried, "Varney, be calm! you will be listened to by one who
will draw no harsh--no hasty conclusions; by one, who, with that
charity, I grieve to say, is rare, will place upon the words you utter
the most favourable construction. Tell me all, I pray you, tell me all."

"This is strange," said the vampyre. "I never thought that aught human
could thus have moved me. Young man, you have touched the chords of
memory; they vibrate throughout my heart, producing cadences and sounds
of years long past. Bear with me awhile."

"And you will speak to me?"

"I will."

"Having your promise, then, I am content, Varney."

"But you must be secret; not even in the wildest waste of nature, where
you can well presume that naught but Heaven can listen to your
whisperings, must you utter one word of that which I shall tell to you."

"Alas!" said Charles, "I dare not take such a confidence; I have said
that it is not for myself; I seek such knowledge of what you are, and
what you have been, but it is for another so dear to me, that all the
charms of life that make up other men's delights, equal not the witchery
of one glance from her, speaking as it does of the glorious light from
that Heaven which is eternal, from whence she sprung."

"And you reject my communication," said Varney, "because I will not give
you leave to expose it to Flora Bannerworth?"

"It must be so."

"And you are most anxious to hear that which I have to relate?"

"Most anxious, indeed--indeed, most anxious."

"Then have I found in that scruple which besets your mind, a better
argument for trusting you, than had ye been loud in protestation. Had
your promises of secrecy been but those which come from the lip, and not
from the heart, my confidence would not have been rejected on such
grounds. I think that I dare trust you."

"With leave to tell to Flora that which you shall communicate."

"You may whisper it to her, but to no one else, without my special leave
and licence."

"I agree to those terms, and will religiously preserve them."

"I do not doubt you for one moment; and now I will tell to you what
never yet has pass