the submarine forest of the corals, I have been tossed
from wave to wave, hurried onwards by a stream more resistless than
that which sweeps through the Gulf of Labrador, and far--far away as
yet is the wished-for haven of my rest. Hitherto my life has been a
tissue of calamity and wo. Over my head since childhood, has
stretched a dull and dreary canopy of clouds, shutting me out for
ever from a glimpse of the blessed sun. Once, and but once only have
I seen a chasm in that envious veil--only once and for a few, a
_very_ few moments, have I gazed upon the blue empyrean, and felt my
heart expand and thrill to the glories of its liquid lustre. That
once--oh, Mr Strachan, can I ever forget it?--that once comprises
the era of the few hours which were the silent witnesses of our
meeting!

"Am I weak in writing to you thus? Perhaps I am; but then, Thomas, I
have never been taught to dissemble. Did I, however, think it
probable that we should ever meet again--that I should hear from
your lips a repetition of that language which now is chronicled in
my soul--it may be that I would not have dared to risk an avowal so
candid and so dear! As it is, it matters not. You have been my
benefactor, my kind consoler--my friend. You have told me that you
love; and in the fullness and native simplicity of my heart, I
believe you. And if it be any satisfaction to you to know that your
sentiments have been at least appreciated, believe that of all the
pangs which the poor Dorothea has suffered, this last agony of
parting has been incomparably the most severe.

"You asked me if there was no hope. Oh, my Thomas! what would I not
give could I venture to answer, yes? But it cannot be! You are young
and happy, and will yet be fortunate and beloved: why, then, should
I permit so fair an existence to be blighted by the upas-tree of
destiny under which I am doomed to languish? You shall not say that
I am selfish--you shall not hereafter reproach me for having
permitted you to share a burden too great for both of us to carry.
You must learn the one great lesson of existence, to submit and to
forget!

"I am going far away, to the margin of that inhospitable shore which
receives upon its rocks the billows of the unbroken Atlantic,--or
haply, amongst the remoter isles, I shall listen to the seamew's
cry.