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dignity was more than a sufficient answer. She began to speak.

"Enough, enough," he cried; "let not the fatal word pass your lips. I was mad! I-a year hence-an age-say not impossible for ever!"

"For ever impossible! I am sorry, truly sorry, Mr. More, that my manner has misled you. My age and inexperience must be my excuse. I beg of you to forgive me, and forget that you have ever seen me. Again I repeat, that the subject you have spoken to me upon must never be recurred to."

She was about to go.

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"Stop!" he said, placing himself between her and the door. Hear me one instant, Lady Eda! Cancel the words for ever."'

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Leave me a hope, that at the end of years, if still your heart be free, I may strive to win it. For mercy's sake grant me this. I ask no more."

"Mr. More, you have my answer.

final. I beg you to let me go."

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"Go, then! And learn that you have mocked and trifled with a heart whose devotion you could not fathom. Go! Seek a husband from the noble, the wealthy, and the graceful, Never shall you meet with one whose love can equal mine! I leave you. Farewell! May you never suffer a moment of that long anguish which is in store for me the agony of a heart that beats without hope! Yet will I endure it; and when you hear others call me happy, remember it is not happiness but endurance. And though now you think me the presumptuous fool of an hour-you will live to acknowledge the dignity of a constancy like mine!

He bowed, and she passed on and left him.

The instant Lady Eda was gone, he rushed up-stairs, entered his own room, locked the door, closed the shutters to keep

out the little light which still remained, but was yet enough to remind him of the presence of familiar objects; and, throwing himself full length on the floor, lay there in a state of almost utter insensibility."

The death-blow is seldom felt in the rage of battle. The unnatural state of excitement, which immediately succeeded to the first anguish of his disappointment, had borne him through the first trial to his selfcontrol with a bravado of manner which might well have passed for the calmness of self-possession. He was no sooner alone than he was overcome by the sudden outburst of the passion so long pent up within him. He lay upon the floor motionless as if in death; his breathing was hardly perceptible, except at intervals, when his chest heaved convulsively; all the functions of life seemed suspended. Even the faculties of his mind. were completely prostrate and subdued. For several hours he thus remained without

moving. By degrees he became aware of what had happened. He knew where he was, but so agonizing was the remembrance of the dreadful event which had taken place, that he closed his eyes and stopped his ears, as if to shut out every action of thought and memory.

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With reviving consciousness, imagination began to work. The dread reality of his altered relation to Lady Eda—of his act which had brought it about, and of the lasting effect the irremediable nature of that change -forced itself into his thoughts, notwithstanding the violent efforts he made to resist. it. If for a few minutes forgetfulness or unconsciousness afforded that relief he vainly sought in sleep, it was attended with none of the soothing effects of repose. The revival of his faculties was the more painful from their temporary cessation. Then rushed upon him a crowd of passions and regrets, a confused mass of conflicting ideas, through

VOL. II.

H

which a gleam of reason sometimes shone— only to make them the more terribly distinct. He seemed to be aware that he had passed at one step from the height of bliss to the depth of woe; that he had enjoyed for once and once only the greatest degree of happiness he was capable of; that no power on earth could ever restore that happiness; that it was irrevocably gone from him—and all that remained, as compared with it, could be nothing but misery.

Hitherto his hopes had beamed with ecstacy. As far as this world was concerned, every hope was now annihilated, blotted out with the extinction of this one. The bitterness of these thoughts was so excessive that it overwhelmed every other sentiment, and again he relapsed into the stupor of profound despair.

At one moment he was roused by the belief that his sufferings could not last—that death would put an end to them; then so

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