iron mind now yielded to the outpourings of her
anguish.

Some time elapsed ere she even attempted to control her feelings; and
then her struggle to subdue them was as sudden and energetic as her
grief had a moment previously been violent and apparently inconsolable.

Then she recollected the note which Dr. Duras had slipped into her hand,
and which she had concealed in her bosom; and she hastened to peruse it.
The contents ran as follows:

"In accordance with your request, my noble-hearted and
much-enduring friend, I have consulted eminent lawyers in
respect to the will of the late Count of Riverola. The substance
of their opinion is unanimously this: The estates are
inalienably settled on yourself, should you recover the
faculties of hearing and speaking at any time previous to your
brother's attainment of the age of thirty; and should you enter
into possession of the estates, and allow your brother to enjoy
the whole or greater part of the revenues, in direct
contradiction to the spirit of your father's will, the estates
would become liable to confiscation by his highness the duke. In
this case your brother and yourself would alike be ruined.

"Now, the advice that these lawyers give is this: A memorial
should be addressed to his highness, exhibiting that you refuse
to undergo any surgical treatment or operation for the
restoration of the faculties of hearing and speech, inasmuch as
you would not wish to deprive your brother of the enjoyment of
the estates nor of the title conferred by their possession: that
you therefore solicit a decree, confirming his title of
nobility, and dispensing with the prerogative of confiscation on
the part of the prince, should you recover the faculties of
hearing and speech, and act in opposition to the will of your
late father in respect to the power of alienating the estates
from your own possession.

"Such, my generous-minded friend, is the counsel offered by
eminent advocates; and, by the memory of your sainted mother, if
not for the sake of your own happiness, I implore you to act in
accordance with these suggestions. You will remember that this
advice pretty accurately corresponds with that which I gave you,
when, late on the night that the will was read, you quitted your
sleepless couch and came to my dwelling to consult me on a point
so intimate