ot because I am incapable of a Christian's
forgiveness, but because I am not capable of a gentleman's treason
to his ancestors and himself;--because Matilda Darrell was false and
perfidious; because she was dead to honour, and therefore her birthright
to a heritage of honour was irrevocably forfeited. And since you compel
me to speak rudely, while in you I revere a man above the power of law
to degrade--while, could we pass a generation, and Sophy were your child
by your Lizzy, I should proudly welcome an alliance that made you and me
as brothers--yet I cannot contemplate--it is beyond my power--I cannot
contemplate the picture of Jasper Losely's daughter, even by my own
child, the Mistress in my father's home--the bearer of my father's name.
'Tis in vain to argue. Grant me the slave of a prejudice--grant these
ideas to be antiquated bigotry--I am too old to change. I ask from
others no sacrifice which I have not borne. And whatever be Lionel's
grief at my resolve, grief will be my companion long after he has
forgotten that he mourned."

CHAPTER IX.

POOR SOPHY!

The next morning Mills, in giving Sophy a letter from Lady Montfort,
gave her also one for Waife, and she recognised Lionel Haughton's
handwriting on the address. She went straight to Waife's sitting-room,
for the old man had now resumed his early habits, and was up and
dressed. She placed the letter in his hands without a word, and stood
by his side while he opened it, with a certain still firmness in the
expression of her face, as if she were making up her mind to some great
effort. The letter was ostensibly one of congratulation. Lionel had seen
Darrell the day before, after the latter had left the Home Secretary's
office, and had learned that all which Justice could do to repair the
wrong inflicted had been done. Here Lionel's words, though brief, were
cordial, and almost joyous; but then came a few sentences steeped in
gloom. There was an allusion, vague and delicate in itself, to the
eventful conversation with Waife in reference to Sophy--a sombre,
solemn farewell conveyed to her and to hope--a passionate prayer for her
happiness--and then an abrupt wrench, as it were, away from a subject
too intolerably painful to prolong--an intimation that he had succeeded
in exchanging into a regiment very shortly to be sent into active
service; that he should set out the next day to join that regiment in
a distant part of the country; and that he trusted,