was, indeed, inexplicable. Twice or thrice a thought flashed across him,
if it should not be true,--if it were merely one of those rumours which
the world builds on circumstances,--that Hemsworth's intimacy was the
sole foundation for the report, and the friendly interchange of visits
the only reason for the story.

"I must know this," said Mark; "it may not be too late to save her. I
may have come back in the very nick of time, and if so, I shall deem
this piece of fortune more than enough to requite all the mischances of
my life."

As he spoke thus he had reached the little flower-garden, which, in
front of the tower, was the only spot of cultivation around the old
building. His eye wandered over the evidences of care, few and slight as
they were, with pleasant thoughts of her who suggested the culture, when
at the turn of a walk he beheld his cousin coming slowly towards him.

"Good morrow, Mark," said she, extending her hand, and with a smile that
betokened no angry memory of the preceding night; "you took but little
sleep for one so much fatigued as you were."

"And you, cousin, if I mistake not, even as little. I saw a light
burning in your room when day was breaking."

"An old convent habit," said she, smiling; "our matins used to be as
early."

A low, soft sigh followed this speech.

"Yes," said Mark, "you have reason to regret it; your life was happier
there; you had the pleasure of thinking, that many a mile away in this
remote land, there were relatives and friends to whom you were dear, and
of whom you might feel proud; sad experience has told you how unworthy
we are of your affection, how much beneath your esteem. The cold
realities that strip life of its ideal happiness are only endurable when
age has blunted our affections and chilled our hearts. In youth their
poignancy is agony itself. Yes, Kate, I can dare to say it, even to you,
would that you had never come amongst us."

"I will not misunderstand you, Mark; I will not affect to think that,
in your speech, there is any want of affection for me; I will take it
as you mean it, that it had been better for me; and, even on your own
showing, I tell you, nay. If I have shed some tears within these old
walls, yet have my brightest hours been passed within them. Never, until
I came here, did I know what it was to minister to another's happiness;
never did I feel before the ecstacy of being able to make joy more
pleasurable, and sorrow less afflicti