xtent, have shown herself capable of acting a deceitful part; and that
even though the deceit may have stopped short of further transgression,
it was none the less certain that in future no further trust could be
reposed in her. Gone forever was that frail hope to which, against all
warnings of instinct, AEnone had persisted in clinging--the hope that in
the Greek girl she might succeed in finding a true and honest friend.

Seeing that she remained absorbed and speechless, Sergius believed that
she was merely jealously pondering upon these trivial transgressions,
and endeavored, by kind and loving expressions, to remove the evil
effects of his unguarded admission. Gathering her closer in his arms, he
strove once more, by exerting those fascinations which had hitherto so
often prevailed, to calm her disturbed fancies, and bring back again her
confidence in him. But now he spoke almost in vain. Conscious, as AEnone
could not fail to be, of the apparent love and tenderness with which he
bent his eyes upon her, and of the liquid melody of his impassioned
intonations, and half inclined, as she felt, at each instant to yield to
the impulse which tempted her to throw her arms about his neck and
promise from henceforth to believe unfalteringly all that he might say,
whatever opposing evidences might stand before her, there was all the
while the restraining feeling that this show of affection was but a
pretence wherewith to quiet her inconvenient reproaches--that at heart
he was playing with deceit--that the husband was colluding with the
slave to blind her eyes--and that the love and friendship of both lord
and menial had forever failed her.

'But hold to your own suspicions, if you will,' he said, at length, with
testy accent, as he saw how little all his efforts had moved her. 'I
have spoken in my defence all that I need to speak, even if excuse were
necessary; and it is an ill reward to receive only cold and forbidding
responses in return.'

'Answer me this,' she exclaimed, suddenly rousing into action, and
looking him earnestly in the face; 'and as you now answer, I will
promise to believe you, for I know that, whatever you may have done, you
will not, if appealed to upon your honor, tell me that which is not
true. About the trivial actions which you have mentioned I care little;
but is there in your heart any real affection for that girl? If you say
that there is not, I will never more distrust you, but will go out from