Should I not have dared every thing, rather than have so
openly yielded my authority?"

* * * * *

In the mean while, the sanguinary preparations went silently on. In the
gray of a foggy February morning the duel was fought, and Captain
Wentworth fell, as it was at first thought, mortally wounded.

At the request of his excellent physician, Dr. Durand, when the watchers
were exhausted, and vigilance was all-essential in his case, I accepted,
rather than proposed to take, the post of watcher for one night, in
company with his devoted friend and coadjutor Edward Vernon, and
discovered, in my anguish, and in my power over his distracted senses,
my so-far-hidden gift of magnetism.

Insomnolency was destroying him; opiates had been tried in vain to
compose him, and now, under my waving fingers and strained will, he
slept the sweet, refreshing magnetic slumber. He lived, some were
pleased to say, and among others, his physician, through my agency--my
admirable nursing--for none save Vernon ever knew the secret of my sway.
We became engaged during his convalescence, simply, quietly,
unostentatiously.

In due time we made our troth-plight known to the household of
Beauseincourt, all of whom, from its formal master to my best-beloved,
brightest, and ever-tantalizing pupil, Bertie, accorded me their
heart-felt congratulations. Gregory alone--the evil genius of the
place--cast his poisonous sneers and doubts above our happiness--a
structure too firmly based, too far removed from him, however, for his
arrows to reach or destroy. Circumstances seemed later to favor his
malicious designs, as shall be shown in the conclusion of this work;
but, together, and in the full flush of our happiness, we were
invincible.

A sudden summons from the seat of government compelled Captain Wentworth
to leave Lesdernier a few hours after its reception--hours of which he
passed, through the necessity of speedy preparation, but one with me. So
far I had delayed the revelation of my true history and name, preferring
to postpone this to my majority and our marriage-day; but, after his
departure, I rued my resolution, and concluded to write to him a hasty
summary of my life and motives of action. This letter was, as a matter
of necessity, confided to the care of Luke Gregory (never a chosen
depositary of mine in any way), who followed him to Savannah to receive
some parting instructions for the conduct of their work,