, when her face was first revealed to
me? Not the shadow of a suspicion, from the moment when she lifted her
veil by the side of the inscription which recorded her death.

Before the sun of that day had set, before the last glimpse of the home
which was closed against her had passed from our view, the farewell
words I spoke, when we parted at Limmeridge House, had been recalled by
both of us--repeated by me, recognised by her. "If ever the time comes,
when the devotion of my whole heart and soul and strength will give you
a moment's happiness, or spare you a moment's sorrow, will you try to
remember the poor drawing-master who has taught you?" She, who now
remembered so little of the trouble and terror of a later time,
remembered those words, and laid her poor head innocently and
trustingly on the bosom of the man who had spoken them. In that
moment, when she called me by my name, when she said, "They have tried
to make me forget everything, Walter; but I remember Marian, and I
remember YOU"--in that moment, I, who had long since given her my love,
gave her my life, and thanked God that it was mine to bestow on her.
Yes! the time had come. From thousands on thousands of miles
away--through forest and wilderness, where companions stronger than I
had fallen by my side, through peril of death thrice renewed, and
thrice escaped, the Hand that leads men on the dark road to the future
had led me to meet that time. Forlorn and disowned, sorely tried and
sadly changed--her beauty faded, her mind clouded--robbed of her
station in the world, of her place among living creatures--the devotion
I had promised, the devotion of my whole heart and soul and strength,
might be laid blamelessly now at those dear feet. In the right of her
calamity, in the right of her friendlessness, she was mine at last!
Mine to support, to protect, to cherish, to restore. Mine to love and
honour as father and brother both. Mine to vindicate through all risks
and all sacrifices--through the hopeless struggle against Rank and
Power, through the long fight with armed deceit and fortified Success,
through the waste of my reputation, through the loss of my friends,
through the hazard of my life.

II

My position is defined--my motives are acknowledged. The story of
Marian and the story of Laura must come next.

I shall relate both narratives, not in the words (often interrupted,
often inevitably confused) of the speakers themselves, but in the w