it. Trust yourself to me; you have not another friend let me become legally so, and I will protect you against the world."

"Never! so help me Heaven, never! Release my hands this moment! Oh, Godfrey! Godfrey!-No; rather would I drag out the remainder of my wretched life in the cell of the maniac, or sink at once into my grave, than owe my existence to becoming your wife!"

"These are professions which all can make," replied De l'Espoir coldly, irritated by the aversion she evinced towards him, "but we see few who can stand the test; especially-especially, mademoiselle, when their own consciences likewise stand up against them." And he looked on her with a sardonic smile, and eyes, the dark malignity of which nearly scared away the little remains of reason which she was struggling hard to retain; and which the various agitations she had undergone, and the baneful drugs that had been administered to her, barely left

her.

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"What do you mean ?" she asked, staring

on him with amazement.

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Why, I simply mean this: that the very essence of animal magnetism is the will of the magnetizer; and that the effect is never injurious, or at least fatal, when his intention is · pure."

Gertrude was still at a loss to understand him, and again asked what he meant.

"In two words, then, I mean, that I subjected you to too great a trial-too great a temptation. The advantages accruing to you from your brother's death were so great, that, unknown perhaps even to yourself, at least certainly I believe unacknowledged,-your will operated to his destruction!"

By those whose lives have been spent in the world, where so many are ready to vilify our best intentions, and constantly to misunderstand them, and who have consequently learned the necessity of being satisfied with the mens conscia recti; — by the mathematician, who stifles

imagination with the weight of proof ;—or, by the hardened sinner, who has seared his conscience until it has lost all outward sign of sensibility;-by each of these, and perhaps by many others, the villanous suggestion of De l'Espoir would have been treated with the contempt it merited. But, to the delicate mind, hitherto watched with tenderness and care; to the young heart, taught to look to the approbation or displeasure of others for its rule of right, simply because others are severer critics than ourselves; but, above all, to her whose nerves had been shattered and excited to the very utmost,-it sounded like the denunciation of an avenging God, through his minister of wrath !

She leaned back upon her seat with glaring eyes and quivering lips. Her mouth, throat, and tongue became dry and parched. She shut and opened her hands with a convulsive movement, in time to her gasping breath; and having continued thus for the space of a minute, glaring on De l'Espoir, she fell heavily forwards. He

VOL. III.

D

caught her in his arms, carried her to the bed, on which he laid her, and left the room in search of wine. She did not faint; and when he returned, and held some wine to her lips, she not only swallowed it, but eagerly drank off the remainder, perhaps hoping this time at least. the draught he offered might do its work surely. She suffered her head to fall back upon the pillow; and as De l'Espoir anxiously leaned over to see if she had fainted, she suddenly burst into a loud and maniacal laugh, — it was the very voice of misery! it was absolute despair laughing at its own excess !

De l'Espoir's feelings at this moment were far from enviable. Already the doubt had come across him, even before quitting Beauton Park, whether he had not undertaken too desperate a game, and every hour was tending more than the last to convince him that he was mistaken in the tool he had chosen that, meek, gentle, and complying as Gertrude seemed in ordinary intercourse, her feelings were

deep and fixed, and the very reverse of passive. Even now, when he had struck the last blow on which he depended for success, instead of the puny terror of conviction and of punishment which he had hoped would have led her to seek refuge in his arms, he saw only the deep workings of a morbid and excited conscience.

He contemplated her countenance and whole person contracted in misery before him, and for one moment the thought came across him to despatch her back to her family and make his escape. But then, could he hope that Gertrude would not betray him, and that they would not search him out from the uttermost ends of the earth for vengeance? He believed, indeed, that Vandeleur might pass it over, but the fatherthe father could not! And what would be the result? Either condign punishment, or at least the loss of the sort of touch-and-go' character which he had still contrived with

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some adroitness to preserve. His ruin were effected equally in either way; and would he then