wals of a desperate and audacious passion, which waxed
the stronger for the absolute loathing vouchsafed in return. In this
place it may be as well to reveal the end of this ill-fated and
unsuitable courtship, which never had my sanction, nor even toleration.
When the cloud gathered over Beauseincourt, so soon to burst in fury and
destruction, when ruin was imminent, Gregory withdrew on frivolous
pretexts, and turned his back on Lesdernier, and her who had so loved
him, forever!

While pretending to be the devoted friend and even abject servant of
Captain Wentworth, he was seeking, in every way, and on every hand,
secretly to undermine him. This effort produced in my mind only mistrust
and disdain; but with others it was, unfortunately, more successful.

Soon after my arrival at Lesdernier, I found, in one of the papers that
I had ordered to be sent there from my native city to the address of
"Miss Harz," an atrocious advertisement, describing me personally as an
escaped lunatic, and offering a reward for my apprehension. Fortunately,
these papers were not objects of interest to the family in which I found
myself, where periodicals of all sorts were rife, as well as books,
ancient and modern, and newspapers were thick as leaves in Vallambrosa.

In the silence of my chamber I read and destroyed, or concealed this
evidence of enmity, malice, and all uncharitableness. I would trust no
one with my identity--none save God--until the hour should come of my
majority and emancipation; then, armed with Judaic vengeance, I would
return to claim my sister, my fortune, and my rights.

Soon afterward I read in the same sheet, sent weekly to Lesdernier, the
notice of the marriage of Claude Bainrothe and Evelyn Erle. This was the
test of truth! I bore it bravely. Not a heart-beat gave tribute to the
love of other days. The fire was dead, and ashes alone remained on the
deserted hearth-stone. Lower down in the columns of the same paper,
however, was something that smote my soul. The Parthian dart was there,
and it quivered in its target! I saw that the wedding-party had sailed
for Europe on the same day of the nuptials, to be absent a year, and had
taken with them my dear one!

So far away! Seas rolling between us! Foreign lands, foreign laws
intervening, which might, for all I knew, deprive me of her presence
forever, who was my hope, my life!

"O little sister," I groaned, "was I right, after all, in forsaking you
for a season?