tears of hysterical joy even at the sound of your name. Oh, my dear, dear Mr. Forester ! pardon the familiar earnestness of this appeal: has she not ten thousand times more claim to your affections than any other? She it was whose exquisite senses first caught the sound of your voice in Goathurst Wood, and whose humane heart prompted her to fly through the storm to your succour; she it was who nursed and hovered over you like a guardian angel, who proffered her own life and compromised that of her brother, to secure your escape from Hales Court; who suggested the scheme for your deliverance from prison at Exeter, and would gladly, delightedly, have laid her own head upon the block, if thus she might have saved yours. Does not such devotedness, an attachment so fond, so brave, so self-sacrificing, deserve that you should reciprocate her affections? You will tell me, perhaps, that you have placed them elsewhere; that you cannot transfer them. But my death, or my inflexible rejection of your suit if I live, must alike compel you to extinguish this hopeless passion; and it is utterly impossible for you to revert to the claims, the

virtues, the charms of the incomparable Edith Colyton, without loving her. Oh what a wonderful union of tenderness and heroism is Edith! how gentle and generous her heart! how fine and penetrating her intellect, unless when it is clouded by the over-sensibility of her feelings! When I recall the exquisite organization of that beautiful creature; how her faculties tremble and pendulate at this very moment between reason of the brightest order, and the lamentable gloom of derangement, I shudder at the consequences, should she be left to pine and wither away in disappointment. Oh! if that loving heart were to break-if that acute mind · were to sink into imbecility-if such a pure, affectionate, faultless, heavenly creature were to be driven into a premature grave! - Stanley

Forester! need I say more?

that in marrying Edith you

Yes, I will add,

will have the glad

sanction of your father, who would never forgive you were you to espouse a Catholic; while mine, who is unwillingly condemned to a residence in France, must not and shall not be ever abandoned by his daughter. Are not our respective paths chalked out for us with suf

ficient clearness? Fate, filial affection, friendship, necessity itself, cry aloud to me that I must remain an exile, and reject Stanley Forester. Duty, honour, gratitude, compassion, all the considerations of propriety and of feeling, point out Edith Colyton as the wife whom Stanley Forester should select. By acting under their solemn sanctions and suggestions, you will not only secure her felicity and your own, but confirm my happiness also should I live, and entitle yourself, should I be summoned from this earthly scene, to the dying prayers and benedictions of your grateful friend,

"AGATHA SHELTON."

Most intense and agitating were the feelings of Forester on perusing this letter. Heartthrobbing dismay at the intelligence of Agatha's illness; tender fears that her own misgivings as to a relapse might be confirmed; and the keenest pangs of disappointment at her apparent disavowal of that attachment which she had more than intimated at Hales Court, and the remembrance of which he had cherished

with such a fond and sanguine confidence, distressed his bosom by turns; while it thrilled and melted with an undefinable feeling of affection, admiration, and surprise, as he read those glowing passages that alluded to Edith. The proud love, even of the best of men, knows not the humility, the disinterestedness, the generous devotement of a woman's attachment; it cannot exist without hope, nor can that hope be destroyed without wounding the haughty spirit that nourished it. Forester's immediate and predominant feeling, therefore, was one of vexed humiliation at Agatha's apparent denial of regard for him, and these were the passages to which he first reverted. On re-perusing them he saw that her former declaration was rather qualified than recalled; that she did not so much retract the confession she had then made, as point out present obstacles to their union, and endeavour to substitute the heart-wounded Edith Colyton for herself. In spite of her averments, or rather of her insinuations, he flattered himself that she still regarded him with undiminished affection; and as his self

love recovered from the momentary shock it had received, he could the better distinguish and appreciate the generosity of that love by which others were actuated. That he should have awakened such a vehement passion in Edith filled him at first with unaffected surprise, for she had ever commended Agatha to his admiration with so fervent an eloquence, her eulogies of her friend had been so incessant and exalted, she had even expressed the delight with which she should contemplate their marriage with so much unreserve and ardour, that he entertained not the smallest suspicion as to the real state of her heart. Now, however, that the veil was withdrawn, he could recognise in a thousand little circumstances which he had formerly overlooked, a full confirmation of the passion he had so unintentionally and unhappily kindled; and he was struck with wonder at the magnanimity of these generous women, each recommending her rival to a preference in the affections of the man to whom both were attached, both wishing to renounce him that they might sacrifice love to friendship.