bserver who had
not detected her suppressed agitation.

'Dearest Digby,' she continued, 'you are so generous and so kind, that
I ought to feel no reluctance in speaking to you upon this subject; and
yet it pains me very much.' She hesitated.

'I can only express my sympathy with any sorrow of yours, Henrietta,'
said Lord Montfort. 'Speak to me as you always do, with that frankness
which so much delights me.'

'Let your thoughts recur to the most painful incident of my life, then,'
said Henrietta.

'If you require it,' said Lord Montfort, in a serious tone.

'It is not my fault, dearest Digby, that a single circumstance connected
with that unhappy event should be unknown to you. I wished originally
that you should know all. I have a thousand times since regretted
that your consideration for my feelings should ever have occasioned an
imperfect confidence between us; and something has occurred to-day which
makes me lament it bitterly.'

'No, no, dearest Henrietta; you feel too keenly,' said Lord Montfort.

'Indeed, Digby, it is so,' said Henrietta very mournfully.

'Speak, then, dearest Henrietta.'

'It is necessary that you should know the name of that person who once
exercised an influence over my feelings, which I never affected to
disguise to you.'

'Is it indeed necessary?' enquired Lord Montfort.

'It is for my happiness,' replied Henrietta.

'Then, indeed, I am anxious to learn it.'

'He is in this country,' said Henrietta, 'he is in this town; he may be
in the same room with you to-morrow; he has been in the same room with
me even this day.'

'Indeed!' said Lord Montfort.

'He bears a name not unknown to you,' said Henrietta, 'a name, too, that
I must teach myself to mention, and yet------'

Lord Montfort rose and took a pencil and a sheet of paper from the
table, 'Write it,' he said in a kind tone.

Henrietta took the pencil, and wrote,

'Armine.'

'The son of Sir Ratcliffe?' said Lord Montfort.

'The same,' replied Henrietta.

'You heard then of him last night?' enquired her companion.

'Even so; of that, too, I was about to speak.'

'I am aware of the connection of Mr. Glastonbury with the Armine
family,' said Lord Montfort, quietly.

[Illustration: frontis-page025.jpg]

There was a dead pause. At length Lord Montfort said, 'Is there anything
you wish me to do?'

'Much,' said Henrietta. 'Dearest Digby,' she continued, after a moment's
hesitation, 'do not misinterpret me; my hea