o could
avert this evil from her father.

Bertram shook his head sadly. "His credit is gone--no one comes to his
assistance."

"No one?" asked Elise, putting her hand with an indescribable
expression on his shoulder. "And you, my brother?"

"Ah, I have tried every thing," said he; and even in this moment
her very touch darted through him like a flash of delight. "I have
implored him with tears in my eyes to accept the little I possess, to
allow me the sacred right of a son. But he refused me. He will not, he
says, allow a stranger to sacrifice himself for his sake. He calls me
a stranger! I know that my fortune cannot save him, but it may delay
his fall, or at least cancel a portion of his debt, and he refuses me.
He says that if I were his son, he would consent to what he now
denies me. Elise," he continued, putting aside, in the pressure of the
moment, all consideration and all hesitation, "I have asked him for
your hand, my sister, that I may in reality become his son. I know
that you do not love, but you might esteem me; for the love I bear
your father, you might, as a sacrifice to your duty as a daughter,
accept my hand and become my bride."

He ceased, and looked anxiously and timidly at the young girl, who
sat blushing and trembling by his side. She felt that she owed him an
answer; and as she raised her eyes to him, and looked into his noble,
faithful face, which had never changed, never altered--as she thought
that Bertram had always loved her with the same fidelity, the same
self-sacrifice--with a love which desired nothing, wished for nothing
but her happiness and contentment, she was deeply moved; and, for the
first time, she felt real and painful remorse. Freely and gracefully
she offered him her hand.

"Bertram," she said, "of all the men whom I know, you are the most
noble! As my soul honors you, so would my heart love you, if it were
mine."

Bertram bent over her hand and kissed it; but as he looked at her, his
eye accidentally caught sight of the sparkling jewels which adorned
her arms and neck, and aware for the first time of her unusually
brilliant toilet, he asked in surprise the occasion for it.

"Oh, do not look at it," cried Elise; "tell me about my father. What
did he answer you when you asked him for my hand?"

"That he would never accept such a sacrifice from his daughter, even
to save himself from death."

"And is his fall unavoidable?" asked Elise thoughtfully.

"I almost fear i