a reason.

shed none.

Tell him, Mr. Herbert, that I
Tell him that I am content, and

am ready to depart.'

The clergyman was taken by surprise. He had come prepared for a painful scene,-for reproaches and, perhaps, hysterics; and he found instead, a proud, beautiful woman, accepting her fate nobly, and enduring her punishment without a murmur.

'I will be the bearer of any message with which you care to entrust me,' he continued, after a pause; but I have not yet executed all my commission. Philip wished me to say that he is so sorry, so distressed, and bade me tell you that nothing but necessity-'

Necessity!' repeated Helen, bitterly.

"Yes, necessity, for he has but yielded to his uncle's wish-the uncle who has been a father to him. He repents deeply now, of the great wrong he has done you, and wishes. earnestly to repair that wrong, as far as the doing so lies in his power.'

He can make no reparation to me,—I have

refused his hand. But tell him this, from the woman he has forsaken-tell him, that I shall forgive him sooner than he will forgive himself; but that I will never see him again -never again-never,' she repeated in pitiful accents, most mournful to listen to.

Seeing she was rapidly talking herself to tears, Mr. Herbert hastened his endeavour to check the coming crisis.

'You must not send me away,' he said, 'without some word of comfort for Philip. Do you suppose that you are the only sufferer? Ah! could you but have seen him, as he looked this morning, his heart filled-for believe me, it was-with compassion and tenderness for the dear friend of many years, you would have pitied him.'

'Was he so unhappy? My poor Philip!' 'Indeed he was: and if you knew how anxious he is to ensure your welfare and independence, you would accept the means-'

But this was too much; for interrupting him hastily, she erected her beautiful head,

and looked almost defiantly at the young Rector.

'And does he suppose,' she said, 'that I will take his money for my shame, and receive payment for the love I have wasted on him? Tell him, that I gave him my heart's passion freely, but that it was a thing beyond price, at least beyond such price as he can give. I have been dependent upon his bounty,' she added in a tone of bitter scorn, 'that was my payment while I loved him; but the account between us is settled now; tell your friend that he has my receipt in full.'

'God help you, poor soul,' was Herbert's reply to this outbreak of wounded feeling. Nay, do not send me away' (for she was waving him impatiently from the room), 'I cannot leave you in this reckless mood.'

'Oh! go, go,' cried she, stamping her small foot impatiently. You see nothing. Cannot you feel that I long to be alone-alone with

my broken heart; and flinging herself on the

couch, she buried her head in the cushions, and sobbed with hysterical violence.

Herbert was a young man, and stern moralist; and, exemplary divine as he was, he could not look with unpitying eyes on that woman's great grief.

'Oh,' thought he, that those abundant drops were the sighs of repentance as well as of regret! Then, like the sinful Mary's tears, they would indeed be an offering worthy Heaven. But alas! I fear that for a nature so passionate and impulsive, there is much of trial and tribulation yet in store, ere, like the Magdalen of old, she will weep, and be forgiven!"

And Helen continued to moan pitifully, while her hand, and it was a very beautiful one, hung listlessly by her side. There was something so touching in her attitude, as she lay there crushed, and abandoned to her sorrow, that Herbert, who remembered his own young sisters, and some of their childish griefs, took that small white hand in his, and

pressed it as soothingly as if they two had been the children of one mother: Helen looked up, with a wintry smile upon her tear-stained face.

'You are very good,' she said humbly, and I have been too impatient. You will say to Colonel Thornleigh, that I am ready to follow his wishes in everything. You will say, how I wish and pray that he may be happy.' She was shedding softer tears now, for truly the chain that bound her to him was made of no common links. She had asked no questions concerning his destined bride, nor was there need for her to ask them; for well she knew, by her woman's art of divination, that Thornleigh's future wife was no other than Gertrude Mainwaring, the fair daughter of that insolent and worldly mother.

And I may come and see you again, may I not?' asked the Rector, who still held her hand in his; for indeed she seemed too sad and desolate to be left alone.