knowing all, let me
lean upon it this morning? O Katherine! a happy lot be yours, for you
deserve one!'

'Ferdinand, I have acted as duty, religion, and it may be, some other
considerations prompted me. My feelings have not been so much considered
that they need now be analysed.'

'Reproach me, Katherine, I deserve _your_ reproaches.'

'Mine may not be the only reproaches that you have deserved, Ferdinand;
but permit me to remark, from me you have received none. I pity you, I
sincerely pity you.'

'Glastonbury has told you?' said Ferdinand.

'That communication is among the other good offices we owe him,' replied
Miss Grandison.

'He told you?' said Ferdinand enquiringly.

'All that it was necessary I should know for your honour, or, as some
might think, for my own happiness; no more, I would listen to no more.
I had no idle curiosity to gratify. It is enough that your heart is
another's; I seek not, I wish not, to know that person's name.'

'I cannot mention it,' said Ferdinand; 'but there is no secret from you.
Glastonbury may--should tell all.'

'Amid the wretched she is not the least miserable,' said Miss Grandison.

'O Katherine!' said Ferdinand, after a moment's pause, 'tell me that you
do not hate me; tell me that you pardon me; tell me that you think me
more mad than wicked!'

'Ferdinand,' said Miss Grandison, 'I think we are both unfortunate.'

'I am without hope,' said Ferdinand; 'but you, Katherine, your life must
still be bright and fair.'

'I can never be happy, Ferdinand, if you are not. I am alone in the
world. Your family are my only relations; I cling to them. Your mother
is my mother; I love her with the passion of a child. I looked upon our
union only as the seal of that domestic feeling that had long bound us
all. My happiness now entirely depends upon your family; theirs I feel
is staked upon you. It is the conviction of the total desolation that
must occur if our estrangement be suddenly made known to them, and you,
who are so impetuous, decide upon any rash course, in consequence, that
has induced me to sustain the painful part that I now uphold. This is
the reason that I would not reproach you, Ferdinand, that I would not
quarrel with you, that I would not desert them in this hour of their
affliction.'

'Katherine, beloved Katherine!' exclaimed the distracted Ferdinand, 'why
did we ever part?'

'No! Ferdinand, let us not deceive ourselves. For me, that separation,
however fru