t was only the success of his efforts to make you a
confederate in your own destruction, to make your will the instrument by
which he might bereave you of liberty and honor.

"I took, as usual, the path through your brother's ground. I ranged
with celerity and silence along the bank. I approached the fence, which
divides Wieland's estate from yours. The recess in the bank being near
this line, it being necessary for me to pass near it, my mind being
tainted with inveterate suspicions concerning you; suspicions which were
indebted for their strength to incidents connected with this spot; what
wonder that it seized upon my thoughts! "I leaped on the fence; but
before I descended on the opposite side, I paused to survey the scene.
Leaves dropping with dew, and glistening in the moon's rays, with no
moving object to molest the deep repose, filled me with security
and hope. I left the station at length, and tended forward. You were
probably at rest. How should I communicate without alarming you, the
intelligence of my arrival? An immediate interview was to be procured.
I could not bear to think that a minute should be lost by remissness
or hesitation. Should I knock at the door? or should I stand under your
chamber windows, which I perceived to be open, and awaken you by my
calls?

"These reflections employed me, as I passed opposite to the
summer-house. I had scarcely gone by, when my ear caught a sound unusual
at this time and place. It was almost too faint and too transient to
allow me a distinct perception of it. I stopped to listen; presently
it was heard again, and now it was somewhat in a louder key. It was
laughter; and unquestionably produced by a female voice. That voice was
familiar to my senses. It was yours.

"Whence it came, I was at first at a loss to conjecture; but this
uncertainty vanished when it was heard the third time. I threw back my
eyes towards the recess. Every other organ and limb was useless to me.
I did not reason on the subject. I did not, in a direct manner, draw
my conclusions from the hour, the place, the hilarity which this sound
betokened, and the circumstance of having a companion, which it no less
incontestably proved. In an instant, as it were, my heart was invaded
with cold, and the pulses of life at a stand.

"Why should I go further? Why should I return? Should I not hurry to a
distance from a sound, which, though formerly so sweet and delectable,
was now more hideous than the shr