zing notes, which always seemed ready to mock her,
and to lure her on to fresh disappointment. Yet her impatience to
read its contents had in no way diminished, and it was with the same
impetuous fever of curiosity as before that she tore open the
envelope and devoured the contents. This note was much like the
others, but somewhat more ominous.

It read as follows:

"MUNICH, HOTEL DES ETRANGES, November 9, 1859.

"We leave for Lausanne to-day. We intend to stop at the Hotel Gibbon.
It is not probable that any further journey will be made. Business
most favorable, and prospects are that every thing will soon be
brought to a successful issue."

CHAPTER XLIX.

THE ANGUISH OF THE HEART.

As Hilda read these ominous words a chill like that of death seemed
to strike to her inmost soul. Her disappointment on her arrival here
had already been bitter enough. She had looked upon Munich as the
place where she would surely find the end of her journey, and obtain
the reward of her labors. But now the object of her search was once
more removed, and a new journey more fatiguing than the others was
set before her. Could she bear it?--she who even now felt the old
weakness, and something even worse, coming back irresistibly upon
her. Could she, indeed, bear another journey? This question she put
to herself half hopelessly; but almost immediately her resolute soul
asserted itself, and proudly answered it. Bear such a journey? Ay,
this journey she could bear, and not only this, but many more. Even
though her old weakness was coming back over her frail form, still
she rose superior to that weakness, and persisted in her
determination to go on, and still on, without giving up her purpose,
till she reached Lord Chetwynde, even though it should only be at the
moment of her arrival to drop dead at his feet.

There was more now to stimulate her than the determination of a
resolute and invincible will. The words of that last note had a dark
and ominous meaning, which affected her more strongly by far than any
of the others. The messages which they bore had not been of so
fearful an import as this.

The first said that the "business" was progressing _very favorably_.

The second, that it was progressing _most favorably_.

This last one told her that the business _would soon be brought to a
successful issue_.

Well she knew the meaning of these words. In these different messages
she saw so many successive stages of the t