of my life I will
love you; for it is my fate, and I cannot resist."

"Thanks, thanks, a thousand thanks, Lenora!" exclaimed Gustave, in a
transport. "Thy tender love strengthens me against destiny. Beloved of
my heart, rest here under the guardian eye of God. Thy image will follow
me in my journey like a protecting angel; in joy and grief, by day and
night, in health and sickness, thou, Lenora, wilt ever be present to me!
This cruel separation wounds my heart beyond expression; but duty
commands, and I must obey. Farewell, farewell!"

He wrung her hands convulsively, and was gone.

"Gustave!" sobbed the poor girl, as she sank on the chair and allowed
the pent-up passion of her soul to burst forth in tears.

CHAPTER VII.

Leonora secretly cherished in her heart the hope of a happy future; but
she did not hesitate to inform her father of Gustave's visit. De
Vlierbeck heard her listlessly, and gave no other reply but a bitter
smile.

From that day Grinselhof became sadder and more solitary than ever. The
old gentleman might generally be seen seated in an arm-chair, resting
his forehead on his hand, while his eyes were fixed on the ground or on
vacancy. The fatal day on which the bond fell due was perhaps always
present to his mind; nor could he banish the thought of that frightful
misery into which it would plunge his child and himself. Lenora
carefully concealed her own sufferings in order not to increase her
father's grief; and, although she fully sympathized with him, no effort
was omitted on her part to cheer the old man by apparent contentment.
She did and said every thing that her tender heart could invent to
arouse the sufferer from his reveries; but all her efforts were in vain:
her father thanked her with a smile and caress; but the smile was sad,
the caress constrained and feeble.

If Lenora sometimes asked him, with tears, what was the cause of his
depression, he adroitly managed to avoid all explanations. For days
together he wandered about the loneliest paths of the garden, apparently
anxious to escape the presence even of his daughter. If she caught a
glimpse of him at a distance, a fierce look of irritation was
perceptible on his face, while his arms were thrown about in rapid and
convulsive gesticulations. If she approached him with marks of love and
devotion, he scarcely replied to her affectionate words, but left the
garden to bury himself in the solitude of the house.

An entire month-