g that you loved--he told me of it incessantly."

"Stay, Sibylla. You could not have mistaken me."

"True. Yours was silent love; his was urgent. When it came to the
decision, and he asked me to marry him, and to go out to Australia, then
papa interfered. He suspected that I cared for you--that you cared for
me; and he--he--"

Sibylla stopped and hesitated.

"Must I tell you all?" she asked. "Will you never, never repeat it to
papa, or reproach him? Will you let it remain a secret between us?"

"I will, Sibylla. I will never speak upon the point to Dr. West."

"Papa said that I must choose Frederick Massingbird. He told me that
Verner's Pride was left to Frederick, and he ordered me to marry him. He
did not say how he knew, it--how he heard it; he only said that it was
so. He affirmed that you were cut off with nothing, or next to nothing;
that you would not be able to take a wife for years--perhaps never. And
I weakly yielded."

A strangely stern expression had darkened Lionel's face. Sibylla saw it,
and wrung her hands.

"Oh, don't blame me!--don't blame me more than you can help! I know how
weak, how wrong it was; but you cannot tell how entirely obedient we
have always been to papa."

"Dr. West became accidentally acquainted with the fact that the property
was left away from me," returned Lionel, in a tone of scorn he could not
entirely suppress. "He made good use, it seems, of his knowledge."

"Do not blame _me!_" she reiterated. "It was not my fault."

"I do not blame you, my dearest."

"I have been rightly served," she said, the tears streaming down. "I
married him, pressed to it by my father, that I might share in Verner's
Pride; and, before the news came out that Verner's Pride was ours, he
was dead. It had lapsed to you, whom I rejected! Lionel, I never
supposed that you would cast another thought to me; but, many a time
have I felt that I should like to kneel and ask your forgiveness."

He bent his head, fondly kissing her. "We will forget it together,
Sibylla."

A sudden thought appeared to strike her, called forth, no doubt, by this
new state of things, and her face turned crimson as she looked at
Lionel.

"Ought I to remain here now?"

"You cannot well do anything else, as it is so late," he answered.
"Allow Verner's Pride to afford you an asylum for the present, until you
can make arrangements to remove to some temporary home. Mrs. Tynn will
make you comfortable. I shall be, during the