her continued, "If you do,
why should you hide it from me, your own mother, Caroline? You believe
my conduct changed towards you, but you have condemned me without proof.
You have abandoned my sympathy--shrunk from my love. Try me now, my
sweet child; if you love another, confess it, and we will do what we can
to make that love happy; if it be returned, why should you conceal it?
and if it be not, Caroline, my child, will you refuse even the poor
comfort your mother can bestow?"

She spoke in vain; but could she have read her daughter's heart at that
moment, maternal affection might not have been so deeply pained as it
was by this strange silence. Regret, deep, though unavailing, had been
Caroline's portion, from the moment she had reflected soberly on her
rejection of St. Eval. She recalled his every word, his looks of
respectful yet ardent admiration, and she wept at that infatuation which
had bade her act as she had done; and then his look of controlled
contempt stung her to the quick. He meant not, perhaps, that his glance
should have so clearly denoted that she had sunk in his estimation, it
did not at the moment, but it did when in solitude she recalled it, and
she felt that she deserved it. In vain in those moments did she struggle
to call up the vision of Lord Alphingham, his words of love, his looks
of even more fervid passion, his image would not rise to banish that of
St. Eval; and if Caroline had not still been blinded by the influence
and arguments of Annie, had she given her own good sense one half-hour's
uncontrolled dominion, she would have discovered, that if love had
secretly and unsuspiciously entered her heart, it was not for Lord
Alphingham. Had she really loved him, she could not have resisted the
fond appeal of her mother; but to express in words all the confused and
indefinable emotions then filling her heart was impossible. She
continued for several minutes silent, and Mrs. Hamilton felt too deeply
pained and disappointed to speak again. Her daughter had spoken to her
that morning as she had seldom done even in her childhood. Then her
mother could look forward to years of reason and maturity for the
improvement of those errors; now others had arisen, and if her control
were once so entirely thrown aside, could she ever regain sufficient
influence to lead her right. Seldom had Caroline's conduct given her so
much pain as in the disclosures and events of that morning.

"Is it absolutely necessary