bitter disappointment, which made her so on the defensive, when she arrived at Madame Martineau's. Then came the episode of that blackguard Doucet. After that this George, and then followed the lord, who called himself Mr. Elton. He did not stay long, it is true; bat there must have been something between them in the past to have encouraged him to come. I do not believe that she has cared for any one of these men; but still, looking dispassionately at all this———"
"Ah! there it is. You ought not to look at it dispassionately. You ought to forget everything in your determination to win this pearl of great price, by speaking to her openly, freely, with all the passion you really feel. What does the past signify? She loves you now, or she does not. When I am dead, she will go back to England, believing you to be cold—insensible. And believing you so, and feeling very lonely, as she will (she told me yesterday how she hated the thought of returning ing there alone, without a single relation), she will in time, I suppose, do as other women do—marry some man whom she does not, and never will, care for as she does for you!"
Poor Hatty spoke out of the fulness of her heart, vehemently, but spasmodically, gasping for breath at intervals. Her intensity moved him. He raised the thin little hand to his lips.
"Will any one ever love me as beautifully, as unselfishly as you have done, Hatty?" he said, with unusual tenderness. "From boyhood upward you have been my guardian angel, and no one—neither Elizabeth, nor any other woman—sees me with your partial eyes. Rest
