molest, or even to address, the person at
whose pleasure it was held. On the whole, the conditions to Jasper were
sufficiently favourable: he came into an income immeasurably beyond
his right to believe that he should ever enjoy; and sufficient--well
managed--for even a fair share of the elegancies as well as comforts of
life, to a young couple blest in each other's love, and remote from the
horrible taxes and emulous gentilities of this opulent England, where
out of fear to be thought too poor nobody is ever too rich.

Matilda wrote no more to Darrell. But some months afterwards he
received an extremely well-expressed note in French, the writer whereof
represented herself as a French lady, who had very lately seen Madame
Hammondwho was now in London, but for a few days, and had something to
communicate, of such importance as to justify the liberty she took in
requesting him to honour her with a visit. After some little hesitation,
Darrell called on this lady. Though Matilda had forfeited his affection,
he could not contemplate her probable fate without painful anxiety.
Perhaps Jasper had ill-used her--perhaps she had need of shelter
elsewhere. Though that shelter could not again be under a father's
roof--and though Darrell would have taken no steps to separate her
from the husband she had chosen, still, in secret, he would have felt
comparative relief and ease had she herself sought to divide her fate
from one whose path downwards in dishonour his penetration instinctively
divined. With an idea that some communication might be made to him, to
which he might reply that Matilda, if compelled to quit her husband,
should never want the home and subsistence of a gentlewoman, he repaired
to the house (a handsome house in a quiet street) temporarily occupied
by the French lady. A tall chasseur, in full costume, opened the door--a
page ushered him into the drawing-room. He saw a lady--young-and
with all the grace of a Parisieune in her manner--who, after some
exquisitely-turned phrases of excuse, showed him (as a testimonial
of the intimacy between herself and Madame Hammond) a letter she had
received from Matilda, in a very heart-broken, filial strain, full
of professions of penitence--of a passionate desire for her father's
forgiveness--but far from complaining of Jasper, or hinting at the idea
of deserting a spouse with whom, but for the haunting remembrance of a
beloved parent, her lot would be blest indeed. Whatever of pat