all is vain and worthless, and we among the
vainest of a worthless crew!

And so our young friend here now depreciated as much as he had before
exaggerated his powers. There seemed not on the earth's face a more
forlorn, a more feeble, a less estimable wretch than himself, but just
now a hero. O! what a fool, what a miserable, contemptible fool was he!
With what a light tongue and lighter heart had he spoken of this woman
who despised, who spurned him! His face blushed, ay! burnt, at
the remembrance of his reveries and his fond monologues! the very
recollection made him shudder with disgust. He looked up to see if any
demon were jeering him among the ruins.

His heart was so crushed that hope could not find even one desolate
chamber to smile in. His courage was so cowed that, far from indulging
in the distant romance to which, under these circumstances, we sometimes
fly, he only wondered at the absolute insanity which, for a moment, had
permitted him to aspire to her possession. 'Sympathy of dispositions!
Similarity of tastes, forsooth! Why, we are different existences! Nature
could never have made us for the same world or with the same clay! O
consummate being! why, why did we meet? Why, why are my eyes at
length unsealed? Why, why do I at length feel conscious of my utter
worthlessness? O God! I am miserable!' He arose and hastened to the
house. He gave orders to Luigi and his people to follow him to Rosemount
with all practicable speed, and having left a note for his host with the
usual excuse, he mounted his horse, and in half an hour's time, with a
countenance like a stormy sea, was galloping through the park gates of
Dacre.

BOOK III.

CHAPTER I.

_'If She Be Not Fair For Me.'_

THE day after the arrival of the Duke of St. James at Cleve Park,
his host, Sir Lucius Grafton, received the following note from Mrs.
Dallington Vere:

'Castle Dacre,-------, 182--.

'My dear Baronet,

'Your pigeon has flown, otherwise I should have tied this under his
wing, for I take it for granted he is trained too dexterously to alight
anywhere but at Cleve.

'I confess that in this affair your penetration has exceeded mine.
I hope throughout it will serve you as well. I kept my promise, and
arrived here only a few hours after him. The prejudice which I had long
observed in the little Dacre against your protege was too marked
to render any interference on my part at once necessary, nor did I
anticipat