nal locked so vigilantly from all eyes but her own; that luckless
journal to open which seemed like pillaging her proud heart.

Would she yield at once to the extreme delicacy of her nature, and
shrinking away from notice, perish under this rude publicity?--or,
struggling against it, go mad, and die like an eagle striving to keep
its wings poised on high, though pierced with a thousand arrows. He knew
that she would resist to the last. The exquisite sensitiveness which
rendered her so unlike ordinary women, was matched with a strength of
will which would give suffering its keenest power. It would not be
death--that is the relief of weaker natures--but relentless life--life
full of those torturing agonies that trample every upspringing joy from
the heart. Compared to this life, poisoned in all its sources, death
would be a sweet dream to a woman like Mabel. The intense vitality of
her own nature, would be its torment.

As this picture rose upon his brain, James Harrington shrouded his face,
silent and appalled. His strong heart was racked to the centre--a
tortuous strain closed in upon his nerves, and for the time, that stout,
brave man was helpless as a child.

"You love this woman yet, I see."

General Harrington's voice had resumed its usual slow intonation. The
first anger had left it with a harsh, cold attempt at composure; his
eyes moved from object to object, and his soft white fingers worked
nervously with the tassel of his dressing-gown: if at any moment of his
life this old man could have been awkward, it must have been then, for
he was too keen-sighted not to feel his own meanness, but not honest
enough to crush it beneath his feet.

"You love this woman yet?"

James Harrington dashed the hands away from his pale face, and sat
upright.

"Ask me that, or anything else that appertains only to my own feelings,
and I will answer. I did love the woman you married with every power of
my soul!"

"And now?"

"Now, sir, and from the day she took your name, she has been sacred to
my thoughts, as an angel in Heaven."

General Harrington smiled incredulously.

"I have answered the simple truth, sir," said James, in reply to the
smile.

Instead of being pleased with the honest simplicity of this answer, the
old man looked disappointed; his brow clouded, and his eye fell.

"You would gladly have married her at the time, though?"

James again shrouded his eyes. These questions were so coldly put--so
rudely