ech you to
write to me instantly and inform me on that head as on all others. We
shall meet soon.

Your ever affectionate Brother,

AUBREY DEVEREUX.

There was something in this letter that vexed and displeased me: I
thought it breathed a tone of unkindness and indifference, which
my present circumstances rendered peculiarly inexcusable. So far,
therefore, from answering it immediately, I resolved not to reply to it
till after the solemnization of my marriage. The anecdote of my uncle
startled me a little when I coupled it with the words my uncle had used
towards myself on his death-bed; namely, in hinting that he had heard
some things unfavourable to Isora, unnecessary then to repeat; but still
if my uncle had altered his intentions towards me, would he not have
mentioned the change and its reasons? Would he have written to me with
such kindness, or received me with such affection? I could not believe
that he would; and my opinions of the fraud and the perpetrator were not
a whit changed by Aubrey's epistle. It was clear, however, that he had
joined the party against me; and as my love for him was exceedingly
great, I was much wounded by the idea.

"All leave me," said I, "upon this reverse,--all but Isora!" and I
thought with renewed satisfaction on the step which was about to insure
to her a secure home and an honourable station. My fears lest Isora
should again be molested by her persecutor were now pretty well at
rest; having no doubt in my own mind as to that persecutor's identity,
I imagined that in his new acquisition of wealth and pomp, a boyish
and unreturned love would easily be relinquished; and that, perhaps,
he would scarcely regret my obtaining the prize himself had sought
for, when in my altered fortunes it would be followed by such worldly
depreciation. In short, I looked upon him as possessing a characteristic
common to most bad men, who are never so influenced by love as they are
by hatred; and imagined, therefore, that if he had lost the object
of the love, he could console himself by exulting over any decline of
prosperity in the object of the hate.

As the appointed day drew near, Isora's despondency seemed to vanish,
and she listened, with her usual eagerness in whatever interested me,
to my Continental schemes of enterprise. I resolved that our second
wedding, though public, should be modest and unostentatious, suitable
rather to our fortunes than our birth. St. John, and a few old