confide, you, gentlemen, have an undoubted claim to be informed of; but a secret retained with so much perseverance by my friend, can never be at my discretion to reveal."
"Amiable Louisa," exclaimed Ferdinand, "I stand corrected, and take shame to myself, but do justice to the purity of my motives."
"I do," replied she; "I know they were friendly ones, and I saw the same question trembling on the lips of the Count."
"I own it," said he; "and you must allow it was a natural question, if not a discreet one, and the impulse of the moment; but, pardon our impatience and interruption."
"This secret discovered," resumed she, "gave the severest affliction to Mr. D'Alenberg.—He had not the power to relieve her distress, or procure happiness to his child.—There were certain circumstances that impeded every hope of restoring her to a cheerful turn of mind, and his despair on the conviction was little less terrifying than the
