er hands were clasped, her face was
radiant. It seemed impossible that unhappiness should ever visit her
again.

"Poor woman! Poor, unhappy woman!"

Hope took her hand in his, and drew her down to his side. She was
shaking like a leaf in the wind. For the moment, her joy seemed
complete.

"I cannot believe it! Say again, 'Rachael, I love you.'"

"Have I not said that it is your curse and mine?"

"Oh, Norton! how cruel, with that sweet word sinking into my heart,
after pining and waiting for it so long! Do not withhold it from me, or
think of it as a curse."

"Hush, Rachael! You are only exulting over Dead Sea fruit. It is all
ashes, ashes. Words that, up to this time, I had forbidden to my lips,
have been said, because of a terrible danger that threatens us. Rachael,
did you know of the letter Hepworth sent me?"

Rachael was a brave woman, even in her faults, and would not deny
anything.

"Yes, he wrote the letter here," she said.

"And you sanctioned his pursuit of my daughter?"

"Yes, Norton. I loved him; he was my only relative. That he might live
near me was the last forlorn hope of my life. Before you condemn me,
remember how few people exist in this world for me to love. I have no
friends. I was so cold, so dreary! There was nothing left to me but your
child and this one brother. How could I part with either of them? That
was to be utterly alone!"

Lord Hope checked this pathetic plea. It shook his resolution, and that
with a vigor she could not understand. He looked her steadily in the
face.

"Rachael Closs, could you have given up my child to that man?"

Rachael fixed her wild eyes on the face turned upon her so sternly.

"Why, why?"

"Had you no thought of the ruin it would bring upon her?"

"Ruin? Did you say ruin?"

"Could you see that innocent girl's hand in his without thrills of
painful recollection?"

"Why, he loves her; she loves him."

"So much the more painful."

"What do you mean?"

Her lips were white now, and the teeth gleamed and chattered between
them.

"Have you no dread that he will bring that one event perpetually before
us?"

Rachael shook her head.

"Does nothing tell you that he was mixed up in that tragedy?"

"What should tell me of that? It was the crime of a miserable old
woman."

"Still you understand nothing of that which is a continual pain to me."

A burst of hysterical laughter answered him. The nerves of that woman
were undoubtedly giving way.