nd Heaven yet may make us happy!"

"You had your secrets, and I had mine! O God! what years of anxiety and
painful conjecture, have those words occasioned!

"A stupefying horror at first pervaded my faculties: I sunk into a
chair, and, but for the officious attentions of Mary, should have
experienced a total--happy had it been a lasting insensibility!

"'Where can she be gone?' I faintly exclaimed, when recollection had
regained sufficient power.

"'She cannot be gone far,' sobbed Mary. 'Perhaps, sir, you yet may
overtake her.'

"The idea served effectually to rouse me: I commenced my search, and
soon gained intelligence: a carriage, answerable to that I described,
with a lady and her attendant in it, had been seen on the London road.
To London I immediately directed my course; and at last descried a
carriage, my sanguine hopes led me to think was that containing the sum
of my earthly happiness: I instantly spurred my horse, when, owing to
the badness of the road, or some other cause, he stumbled--fell, and
threw me with violence over his head. I was stunned by the fall, found
by some travellers, and, in a state of insensibility, conveyed to the
nearest inn.

"The hurts I received were not very material; but the agitation of my
mind at being thus prevented from pursuing Ellenor, brought on a fever
which confined me to my apartment for nearly a fortnight. As soon as I
was in a state to travel, I again pursued my way toward London, though
with very little hope, after the time which had elapsed, of discovering
her.

"For weeks after my arrival at the metropolis, I wandered about in the
faint hope fortune might direct my steps to the place where she was
secreted; when, one evening, returning to my lodging, I was surprised by
the appearance of Deborah's equipage, who had likewise been seeking for,
and at last traced me to London. She saw me ere I could enter the
house, when, more than ever detesting the idea of an interview, I
immediately removed to another part of the town.

"The next day I passed as usual in wandering about, and returned in the
evening dejected and fatigued, when, taking up a book belonging to the
hostess, a paper fell from it; it was a sonnet to Hope: but, good
Heavens, think of my astonishment when I found it was the writing of my
Ellenor! At first I discredited the evidence of my senses, till
reiterated examinations convinced me I was not mistaken. I flew to the
mistress of the house, and, i