o slightly knew her. The General's wife, whose dependent she was,
repeatedly warned her against the acquaintance; while the Hanoverian and
other soldiers of the Foreign Legion, who had discovered the nationality
of her friend, were more aggressive than the English military gallants
who made it their business to notice her.

'In this tense state of affairs her answers became more agitated. "O
Heaven, how can I marry you!" she would say.

'"You will; surely you will!" he answered again. "I don't leave without
you. And I shall soon be interrogated before the magistrates if I stay
here; probably imprisoned. You will come?"

'She felt her defences breaking down. Contrary to all reason and sense
of family honour she was, by some abnormal craving, inclining to a
tenderness for him that was founded on its opposite. Sometimes her warm
sentiments burnt lower than at others, and then the enormity of her
conduct showed itself in more staring hues.

'Shortly after this he came with a resigned look on his face. "It is as
I expected," he said. "I have received a hint to go. In good sooth, I
am no Bonapartist--I am no enemy to England; but the presence of the King
made it impossible for a foreigner with no visible occupation, and who
may be a spy, to remain at large in the town. The authorities are civil,
but firm. They are no more than reasonable. Good. I must go. You must
come also."

'She did not speak. But she nodded assent, her eyes drooping.

'On her way back to the house on the Esplanade she said to herself, "I am
glad, I am glad! I could not do otherwise. It is rendering good for
evil!" But she knew how she mocked herself in this, and that the moral
principle had not operated one jot in her acceptance of him. In truth
she had not realized till now the full presence of the emotion which had
unconsciously grown up in her for this lonely and severe man, who, in her
tradition, was vengeance and irreligion personified. He seemed to absorb
her whole nature, and, absorbing, to control it.

'A day or two before the one fixed for the wedding there chanced to come
to her a letter from the only acquaintance of her own sex and country she
possessed in England, one to whom she had sent intelligence of her
approaching marriage, without mentioning with whom. This friend's
misfortunes had been somewhat similar to her own, which fact had been one
cause of their intimacy; her friend's sister, a nun of the Abbey of
Mo