that which Varney, the vampyre, has so strongly made me a confidant
of, I will, at all events, make an effort to procure his permission to
communicate it to all those who are in any way beneficially interested
in the circumstances. Should he refuse me that permission, I am almost
inclined myself to beg him to withhold his confidence."

"Nay, do not do so, Charles--do not do that, I implore you. Recollect,
although you cannot make us joint recipients with you in your knowledge,
you can make use of it, probably, to our advantage, in saving us,
perchance, from the different consequences, so that you can make what
you know in some way beneficial to us, although not in every way."

"There is reason in that, and I give in at once. Be it so, Henry. I will
wait on him, and if I cannot induce him to change his determination, and
allow me to tell some other as well as Flora, I must give in, and take
the thing as a secret, although I shall not abandon a hope, even after
he has told me all he has to tell, that I may induce him to permit me to
make a general confidence, instead of the partial one he has empowered
me to do."

"It may be so; and, at all events, we must not reject a proffered good
because it is not quite so complete as it might be."

"You are right; I will keep my appointment with him, entertaining the
most sanguine hope that our troubles and disasters--I say our, because I
consider myself quite associated in thought, interest, and feelings with
your family--may soon be over."

"Heaven grant it may be so, for your's and Flora's sake; but I feel that
Bannerworth Hall will never again be the place it was to us. I should
prefer that we sought for new associations, which I have no doubt we may
find, and that among us we get up some other home that would be happier,
because not associated with so many sad scenes in our history."

"Be it so; and I am sure that the admiral would gladly give way to such
an arrangement. He has often intimated that he thought Bannerworth Hall
a dull place; consequently, although he pretends to have purchased it of
you, I think he will be very glad to leave it."

[Illustration]

"Be it so, then. If it should really happen that we are upon the eve of
any circumstances that will really tend to relieve us from our misery
and embarrassments, we will seek for some pleasanter abode than the
Hall, which you may well imagine, since it became the scene of that
dreadful tragedy that left us father