d suicide; and, with this impression, she shut the window, and
tottering to the back part of the room, fainted. Her father ran to her
assistance, and she fell into his arms. She was taken up to her room,
and consigned to the care of her woman, who put her to bed; but she was
unable to give any account of herself, or the cause of her disorder,
until the following day.

For my own part, I gradually came to my senses, and with difficulty
regained my chaise, the driver of which told me I had been gone about an
hour. I drove off to town, wholly unaware that I had been observed by
anyone, much less by Emily. When she related to her father what she had
seen, he either disbelieved or effected to disbelieve it, and treated it
as the effect of a distempered mind--the phantom of a disordered
imagination; and she at length began to coincide with him.

I started for the Continent a few days afterwards. Talbot, who had seen
little of Clara since my rejection by Emily, and subsequent illness,
offered my father to accompany me; and Clara was anxious that he should
go, as she was determined not to listen to anything he could say during
my affliction; she could not, she said, be happy while I was miserable,
and gave him no opportunity of conversing with her on the subject of
their union.

We arrived at Paris; but so abstracted was I in thought that I neither
saw nor heard anything. Every attention of Talbot was lost upon me. I
continued in my sullen stupor, and forgot to read the little book which
dear Clara had given, and which, for her sake I had promised to read. I
wrote to Eugenia on my arrival; and disburthened my mind in some
measure, by acknowledging my shameful treatment of her. I implored her
pardon, and, by return of post received it. Her answer was affectionate
and consoling; but she stated that her spirits, of course, were low, and
her health but indifferent.

For many days my mind remained in a state of listless inanity; and
Talbot applied, or suffered others to apply, the most pernicious
stimulant that could be thought of to rouse me to action. Taking a
quiet walk with him, we met some friends of his; and, at their request,
we agreed to go to the saloons of the Palais Royal. This was a
desperate remedy, and by a miracle only was I saved from utter and
irretrievable ruin. How many of my countrymen have fallen victims to
the arts practised in that horrible school of vice, I dare not say!
Happy should I be to