uring his absence Mr. Bristed
showed his sympathy for my lonely situation by many little attentions;
sending up to the school-room, now and then, choice fruit from his
hot-house, or a bouquet of conservatory flowers, and, several times in
the early evening, he sent for me to read aloud to him.

I found him to be a quiet, polished gentleman; and I grew to like him,
and to look for his tokens of kindness after my daily labors with growing
interest, and, if they came not, to feel disappointed and unhappy. He had
travelled much and could talk well, and under the influence of a
sympathetic listener, his countenance lit up with kindly emotion, and the
sad lines of his face disappeared beneath a happy smile.

But in the glowing midsummer his truant brother returned, and my new-born
interest vanished like snow before the harvest sun.

Again Mr. Richard exerted his varied powers to fascinate and amuse me.
Again I listened, and struggled, as formerly, against his wiles, and
finally bent a too willing ear to his soft words of praise and
admiration. With secret pleasure I reveled in his ardent language,
hugging to my heart the belief that I was loved.

How that summer sped by on its golden wings! Time passed on, as in some
delicious opium dream! And when the short clays and long nights of the
Christmas holidays set in, I found myself secretly engaged in marriage to
Richard Bristed.

Of our plans and attachment his brother was not at present to be
informed: this stern brother who shut himself up apart from his species,
and who, Richard told me, was of too cold a nature to sympathize with
love.

"He will dismiss you, Agnes, if he hears of it," he said. "Wait till I
have settled up my affairs, and then he can do his worst."

I believed this statement; I forgot all my former good impressions of Mr.
Bristed, and listened to the tales that were told me of how he had
wronged Richard. I learned to regard him as a robber, a hypocrite whose
statements could not be relied on; a false, dark, bad man. As for
Richard, he seemed a king in comparison; a noble, magnanimous being, whom
some kind fairy had bestowed upon me.

But that cold, relentless Fate, which comes to tear off the painted
wrappings of life, revealing the bare and ugly reality beneath, was fast
pursuing me.

At the close of a cold, snowy day, I had retired early to my room, and
having locked the door that I might be free from interruption, sat down
to look over the daint