l, or at
least lessen, the importance of the service he had rendered her. And,
profoundly touched with his delicacy, she said:

"I comprehend your generous meaning, my lord; and you are fully at
liberty to jest and forget as much as you like the peril from which you
have preserved me. But that which I have to relate to you is of so
grave, so serious, and mournful a nature, is so closely connected with
the events of this morning, and your advice may so greatly benefit me,
that I beseech you to remember that to you I owe both my honour and my
life: yes, my lord, my life! My husband was armed; and he has owned, in
the excess of his repentance, that it was his intention to have killed
me, had his suspicions proved correct."

"Great God!" exclaimed Rodolph with emotion.

"And he would have been justified in so doing," rejoined Madame
d'Harville, bitterly.

"I beseech you, madame," said Rodolph,--and this time he spoke with deep
seriousness,--"I beseech you to be assured I am incapable of being
careless or indifferent to any matter in which you are concerned. If I
seemed but now to jest, it was but to make you think less of a
circumstance which has already occasioned you so much pain. But now,
madame, you may command my most solemn attention. Since you honour me by
saying my advice may be useful, I listen most anxiously and eagerly."

"You can, indeed, counsel me most beneficially, my lord. But, before I
explain to you my reasons for seeking your aid, I must say a few words
concerning a period of which you are ignorant,--I mean the years which
preceded my marriage with M. d'Harville."

Rodolph bowed, and Clemence continued:

"At sixteen years of age I lost my mother (and here a tear stole down
the fair cheek of Madame d'Harville). I cannot attempt to describe how
much I adored that beloved parent. Imagine, my lord, the very
personification of all earthly goodness. Her fondness for me was
excessive, and appeared her only consolation amid the many bitter
sorrows she had to endure. Caring but little for what is styled the
world, with delicate health, and a natural predilection for sedentary
occupation, her great delight had been in attending solely to my
education, and her ample store of solid and varied knowledge well fitted
her for the task. Conceive, my lord, her astonishment and mine when, in
my sixteenth year, my dear preceptress considered my education nearly
completed, my father--making the feeble health of my mot