; he half guesses that there is a dearer
delight in the reserve with which I am treated than in all the
endearments he is allowed. The young, lame, half-grown lion would growl
at me now and then, because I have tamed his lioness and am her keeper,
did not the habit of discipline and the instinct of affection hold him
subdued. Go, Henry; you must learn to take your share of the bitter of
life with all of Adam's race that have gone before or will come after
you. Your destiny can be no exception to the common lot; be grateful
that your love is overlooked thus early, before it can claim any
affinity to passion. An hour's fret, a pang of envy, suffice to express
what you feel. Jealousy hot as the sun above the line, rage destructive
as the tropic storm, the clime of your sensations ignores--as yet.

"I took my usual seat at the desk, quite in my usual way. I am blessed
in that power to cover all inward ebullition with outward calm. No one
who looks at my slow face can guess the vortex sometimes whirling in my
heart, and engulfing thought and wrecking prudence. Pleasant is it to
have the gift to proceed peacefully and powerfully in your course
without alarming by one eccentric movement. It was not my present
intention to utter one word of love to her, or to reveal one glimpse of
the fire in which I wasted. Presumptuous I never have been; presumptuous
I never will be. Rather than even _seem_ selfish and interested, I would
resolutely rise, gird my loins, part and leave her, and seek, on the
other side of the globe, a new life, cold and barren as the rock the
salt tide daily washes. My design this morning was to take of her a near
scrutiny--to read a line in the page of her heart. Before I left I
determined to know _what_ I was leaving.

"I had some quills to make into pens. Most men's hands would have
trembled when their hearts were so stirred; mine went to work steadily,
and my voice, when I called it into exercise, was firm.

"'This day week you will be alone at Fieldhead, Miss Keeldar.'

"'Yes: I rather think my uncle's intention to go is a settled one now.'

"'He leaves you dissatisfied.'

"'He is not pleased with me.'

"'He departs as he came--no better for his journey. This is mortifying.'

"'I trust the failure of his plans will take from him all inclination to
lay new ones.'

"'In his way Mr. Sympson honestly wished you well. All he has done or
intended to do he believed to be for the best.'

"'You are kind