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FRANCESCA CARRARA.
307

been to me unknown. I go; but I leave no void behind. I feel that I owe to Robert Evelyn a dearer debt than to yourself. As he would have shared his prosperity with me, so will I share his adversity with him. I believed myself to be a poor and friendless orphan when I pledged that faith which I will not retract as your rich and titled daughter. There were no truth in the world if I could depart from mine. The wide ocean will soon roll between us—let it wash away all unkind thoughts. I shall think of you, pray for you; and if in after years one gentle feeling, one mournful remembrance, should arise, I implore you to dwell upon them. They will be dear in that after world where alone we may hope to meet again. God bless you, my father!—you cannot dream how at this moment my heart yearns towards you. When the first anger is over, you will believe in the sorrow which dictates these last words of farewell. Again, God bless you!
"Francesca."

She folded the scroll, and her tears fell fast upon it, and her hand trembled so that the name of Lord Avonleigh was almost illegible. She then placed it in the casket where it was destined to remain for the present, and prepared to leave her