se; and indeed the difficulties which awaited
me were even fewer than I had first anticipated. The ravings of Lady
Greville, and her distracted addresses to the name of her lover had
inspired her attendants with a believe of her guiltiness, which in the
beginning of her illness I had vainly attempted to combat. It was not
therefore to be expected that these faithful adherents of my family,
who loved me with an almost parental devotion, and whose regret for
the extinction of the name of Greville was the ruling passion of their
breasts, should consider her an object worthy the sacrifice of my
entire happiness. The few scruples they exhibited were those rather of
expediency than of conscience were easily overcome. By their own desire
they removed to Greville Cross for the more ready furtherance of our
guilty plan; under pretence that the health of the unfortunate Theresa
required change of air. On their arrival they found it easy to impress
the servants of the establishment with a belief of her precarious state,
and the nature of her malady afforded them a plausible pretext for
secluding her from their observation and attendance. Accustomed to
receive from Alice a daily account of her declining condition, the
announcement of her death excited no surprise. In a few weeks after her
journey, a fictitious funeral completed our system of deception.

"The moment when, according to our concerted plan, the death and
interment of Lady Greville were formally announced to me, I repented
of the detestable scheme which had been successfully executed. My soul
revolted from the part of 'excellent dissembling' I had yet to act;
and refused to sloop to a public exhibition of feigned affliction. I
shuddered, too, when I contemplated the shame which awaited me, should
some future event, yet hidden in the lap of time, reveal to the world
the secret villainy of the man who had borne himself so proudly among
his fellows. Yet even these regrets, even the apprehension of fresh
difficulties in the concealment of my crime, were insufficient to deter
me from the prosecution of my original intention; and blinded by the
intemperance of misguided affection, heedless of the shame and misery
into which I was about to plunge the woman I adored, I sought and
obtained your hand.

"Helen, from that moment I have not known one happy hour, and the first
punishment dealt upon my sin was an incapability to enjoy that affection
for which I have forfeited all cla