e! do not
indulge in such dreams. I have told you Daniel loves the Countess Sarah;
and, even if he did not love her, you have been too publicly disgraced
for him ever to give you his name. But that is nothing yet. Go to the
navy department, and they will tell you that 'The Conquest' is out on a
cruise of two years more. At the time when Daniel returns, if he returns
at all (which is very far from being certain), you will long since have
become Mrs. Elgin or Madame de Brevan, unless"--

Henrietta looked at him so fixedly, that he could not bear the glance;
and then she said in a deep voice,--

"Unless I die! did you not mean that? Be it so."

Coldly M. de Brevan bowed, as if he intended to say,--

"Yes, unless you should be dead: that was what I meant."

Then, opening the door, he added,--

"Let me hope, madam, that this is not your last word. I shall, however,
have the honor of calling every week to receive your orders."

And, bowing, he left the room.

"What brought him here, the wretch! What does he want of me?"

Thus she questioned herself as soon as she was alone, and the door was
'shut.' And her anguish increased tenfold; for she did not believe a
word of the pretexts which M. de Brevan had assigned for his visit. No,
she could not admit that he had come to see if she had reflected, nor
that he really cherished that abominable hope, that misery, hunger, and
fear would drive her into his arms.

"He ought to know me well enough," she thought with a new access of
wrath, "to be sure that I would prefer death a thousand times."

There was no doubt in her mind that this step, which had evidently
been extremely painful to himself, had become necessary through some
all-powerful consideration. But what could that be? By a great effort
of mind Henrietta recalled, one by one, all the phrases used by M.
de Brevan, in the hope that some word might give her light; but she
discovered nothing. All he had told her as to the consequences of her
flight, she had foreseen before she had resolved to escape. He had told
her nothing new, but his duel with Sir Thorn; and, when she considered
the matter, she thought that, also, quite natural. For did they not both
covet with equal eagerness the fortune which she would inherit from her
mother as soon as she came of age? The antagonism of their interests
explained, she thought, their hatred; for she was well convinced that
they hated each other mortally. The idea that Sir Thorn an