ch my mother had died hardly a year
before. We reached the Hotel d'Harville--"

The emotion of the young lady redoubled, her cheeks were flushed with
scarlet, and she added, in a voice scarcely intelligible:

"You must know all; if not, I shall appear too contemptible in your
eyes. Well, then," she resumed, with desperate resolution, "I was led to
my apartment and left there alone; after an hour M. d'Harville joined me
there. I was weeping bitterly. My husband came towards me, and was about
to take my arm, when he fell at my feet in agony. He could not hear my
voice, his countenance was spasmodic with fearful convulsions, his eyes
rolled in their orbits with a rapidity that appalled me, his contorted
mouth was filled with blood and foam, and his hand grasped me with
inconceivable force. I made a desperate effort, and his stiffened
fingers at length unclasped from my wrist, and I fainted at the moment
when M. d'Harville was struggling in the paroxysm of this horrible
attack. This was my wedding night, my lord,--this was the vengeance of
Madame Roland!"

"Unhappy woman!" said Rodolph, overwhelmed. "I understand,--an
epileptic. Ah, 'tis horrible!"

"And that is not all," added Clemence, in a voice almost choked by
emotion; "my child, my angel girl, she has inherited this frightful
malady."

"Your daughter! She! What? Her paleness--her weakness--"

"Is, I dread to believe, hereditary; and the physicians think,
therefore, that it is incurable."

Madame d'Harville hid her face in her hands; overcome by this painful
disclosure, she had not courage to add another word. Rodolph also
remained silent. His mind recoiled affrighted from the terrible
mysteries of this night. He pictured to himself the young maiden,
already sad, in consequence of her return to the city in which her
mother had died, arriving at a strange house, alone with a man for whom
she felt an interest and esteem, but not love, nor any of those
sentiments which enchant the mind, none of the engrossing feeling which
removes the chaste alarms of a woman in the participation of a lawful
and reciprocal affection. No, no; on the contrary, Clemence arrived
agitated and distressed, with depressed spirits and tearful eyes. She
was, however, resolved on resignation and the fulfilment of duty, when,
instead of listening to language full of devotion, love, and tenderness,
which would compensate for the sorrowful feelings which were uppermost
in her mind, she sees co