broken by Lucy's convulsive sobs. But the voice of one whose iron
nerves were not unworthy of the offspring of William Brandon, was clear
and audible to her ear, even though uttered in a whisper that scarcely
stirred his lips. It seemed as if Lucy, smitten to the inmost heart by
the generosity with which her lover had torn himself from her at the
time that her wealth might have raised him in any other country far
above the perils and the crimes of his career in this; perceiving now,
for the first time, and in all their force, the causes of his mysterious
conduct; melted by their relationship, and forgetting herself utterly in
the desolation and dark situation in which she beheld one who, whatever
his crimes, had not been criminal towards her;--it seemed as if, carried
away by these emotions, she had yielded altogether to the fondness and
devotion of her nature,--that she had wished to leave home and friends
and fortune, and share with him his punishment and his shame.

"Why," she faltered,--"why--why not? We are all that is left to each
other in the world! Your father and mine were brothers; let me be to you
as a sister. What is there left for me here? Not one being whom I love,
or who cares for me,--not one!"

It was then that Clifford summoned all his courage, as he answered.
Perhaps, now that he felt (though here his knowledge was necessarily
confused and imperfect) his birth was not unequal to hers; now that he
read, or believed he read, in her wan cheek and attenuated frame that
desertion to her was death, and that generosity and self-sacrifice had
become too late,--perhaps these thoughts, concurring with a love in
himself beyond all words, and a love in her which it was above humanity
to resist, altogether conquered and subdued him. Yet, as we have said,
his voice breathed calmly in her ear; and his eye only, which brightened
with a steady and resolute hope, betrayed his mind. "Live, then!" said
he, as he concluded. "My sister, my mistress, my bride, live! In one
year from this day--I repeat--I promise it thee!"

The interview was over, and Lucy returned home with a firm step. She was
on foot. The rain fell in torrents, yet even in her precarious state her
health suffered not; and when within a week from that time she read that
Clifford had departed to the bourne of his punishment, she read the news
with a steady eye and a lip that, if it grew paler, did not quiver.

Shortly after that time Miss Brandon departe