They know all!" cried he, starting up. "_Who_ said they did--_who_ told
them?--tell me that, I say! Who has _dared_ to tell them I am a coloured
man?"

"Hush, Clarence, hush!" replied she, attempting to soothe him. "I do not
know that any one has informed them; I only inferred so from your saying
you were engaged. I thought _you_ had informed them yourself. Don't you
remember you wrote that you should?--and I took it for granted that you
had."

"Oh! yes, yes; so I did! I fully intended to, but found myself too great a
coward. _I dare not_--I cannot risk losing her. I am fearful that if she
knew it she would throw me off for ever."

"Perhaps not, Clarence--if she loves you as she should; and even if she
did, would it not be better that she should know it now, than have it
discovered afterwards, and you both be rendered miserable for life."

"No, no, Aunt Ada--I cannot tell her! It must remain a secret until after
our marriage; then, if they find it out, it will be to their interest to
smooth the matter over, and keep quiet about it."

"Clary, Clary--that is _not_ honourable!"

"I know it--but how can I help it? Once or twice I thought of telling her,
but my heart always failed me at the critical moment. It would kill me to
lose her. Oh! I love her, Aunt Ada," said he, passionately--"love her with
all the energy and strength of my father's race, and all the doating
tenderness of my mother's. I could have told her long ago, before my love
had grown to its present towering strength, but craft set a seal upon my
lips, and bid me be silent until her heart was fully mine, and then nothing
could part us; yet now even, when sure of her affections, the dread that
her love would not stand the test, compels me to shrink more than ever from
the disclosure."

"But, Clarence, you are not acting generously; I know your conscience does
not approve your actions."

"Don't I know that?" he answered, almost fiercely; "yet I dare not tell--I
must shut this secret in my bosom, where it gnaws, gnaws, gnaws, until it
has almost eaten my heart away. Oh, I've thought of that, time and again;
it has kept me awake night after night, it haunts me at all hours; it is
breaking down my health and strength--wearing my very life out of me; no
escaped galley-slave ever felt more than I do, or lived in more constant
fear of detection: and yet I must nourish this tormenting secret, and keep
it growing in my breast until it has crowded out every hono