known as such: he was known to be capable
of any thing, and thus people were on their guard. But this man!--ah, a
thousand times meaner and viler!--he had watched for a whole year, with
smiling face, for the hour of treachery; he had prepared a hideous crime
under the veil of the noblest friendship!

Henrietta thought she could divine what was the traitor's final aim.
In obtaining possession of her, he no doubt thought he would secure to
himself a large portion of Count Ville-Handry's immense fortune.

And hence, she continued in her meditations, hence the hatred between
Sir Thorn and M. de Brevan. They both coveted the same thing; and each
one trembled lest the other should first get hold of the treasure which
he wanted to secure. The idea that the new countess was in complicity
with M. de Brevan did not enter Henrietta's mind. On the contrary, she
thought they were enemies, and divided from each other by separate and
opposite interests.

"Ah!" she said to herself, "they have one feeling, at all events, in
common; and that is hatred against me."

A few months ago, so fearful and so sudden a catastrophe would have
crushed Henrietta, in all probability. But she had endured so many blows
during the past year, that she bore this also; for it is a fact that the
human heart learns to bear grief as the body learns to endure fatigue.
Moreover, she called in to her assistance a light shining high above all
this terrible darkness,--the remembrance of Daniel.

She had doubted him for an instant; but her faith had, after all,
remained intact and perfect. Her reason told her, that, if he had really
loved Sarah Brandon, her enemies, M. Elgin and M. de Brevan, would not
have taken such pains to make her believe it. She thought, therefore,
she was quite certain that he would return to her with his heart devoted
to her as when he left her.

But, great God! to think of the grief and the rage of this man, when he
should hear how wickedly and cowardly he had been betrayed by the man
whom he called his friend! He would know how to restore the count's
daughter to her proper position, and how to avenge her.

"And I shall wait for him," she said, her teeth firmly set,--"I shall
wait for him!"

How? She did not ask herself that question; for she was yet in that
first stage of enthusiasm, when we are full of heroic resolves which do
not allow us to see the obstacles that are to be overcome. But she
soon learned to know the first diffi