et me, my darling, nor my lessons and counsel, and
believe ever in the honor and devotion of your sister. _Pray for me,
Mabel_! MIRIAM."

My letter to Evelyn Erie, without date, written on the ship, and sent
back by the pilot to be mailed also at New York, revealed my
acquaintance with a portion of her duplicity, and Mr. Bainrothe's dark
design.

I promised her my forgiveness on two conditions alone: one was, that she
should not seek to trace me, since all effort to regain me would be
fruitless; another, that she would be kind to Mabel, and my father's
ancient servants until my return, and, of these last, especially Morton.

I uttered no threats nor reproaches--asked no favors, beyond those which
I had a right to demand at her hands as my father's ward--long supported
by him, and even cherished with paternal tenderness--and the guardian of
his child. I knew that the use of my house and furniture would amply
compensate her for all Mabel's expenses, among the principal of which
would be that liberal education which I demanded for her, as her right.

I was very nearly twenty, now; Mabel, ten. There was still time to
redeem the past, and carry out all my frustrated intentions, after the
expiration of one year of abeyance and exile. Yes! I would "stand and
wait," trusting so "to serve."

_LIFE AT "LESDERNIER."_

"Break the dance and scatter the song,
Some depart, and some remain;
_These_ beyond heaven are borne along,
Others the bonds of earth retain."

SHELLEY.

PART II.

_LIFE AT "LESDERNIER."_

AN INTERLUDE.

I purpose here to give only a brief sketch of my sojourn under the roof
of the La Vignes. In another book, and at another time, when some that
now live shall have passed away, or years shall have made dim the memory
of results rather than events (for until _then_ the last must continue,
with their causes, to be _mysteries_), I may unfold the tissues of a
dire tragedy enacted, by some strange providence, under my peculiar view
alone, and thus inexplicable to others.

Of this no more, not even a hint, at present; lest, dropping the
substance for the shadow, the reader should cease to find interest where
I most wish to concentrate it for a season. The heroine so far of my own
story, I cannot yet voluntarily relinquish the privilege of sympathy, so
dear to the narrator of adventure, though I did, indeed, for a time
forget my own identity in the dark shadow, the myste