rvant what Audley would have concealed from him
out of all the world. And the generous boy, who, besides the munificent
allowance he received from the earl, was heir to an independent and
considerable fortune of his own, when he should attain his majority,
hastened to borrow the money and discharge all the obligations of his
friend. The benefit was conferred before Audley knew of it, or could
prevent. Then a new emotion, and perhaps scarce less stinging than the
loss of Nora, tortured the man who had smiled at the warning of science;
and the strange sensation at the heart was felt again and again.

And Harley, too, was still in search of Nora,--would talk of nothing but
her, and looked so haggard and grief-worn. The bloom of the boy's youth
was gone. Could Audley then have said, "She you seek is another's; your
love is razed out of your life; and, for consolation, learn that your
friend has betrayed you"? Could Audley say this? He did not dare. Which
of the two suffered the most?

And these two friends, of characters so different, were so singularly
attached to each other,--inseparable at school, thrown together in the
world, with a wealth of frank confidences between them, accumulated
since childhood. And now, in the midst of all his own anxious sorrow,
Harley still thought and planned for Egerton. And self-accusing remorse,
and all the sense of painful gratitude, deepened Audley's affection
for Harley into a devotion as to a superior, while softening it into a
reverential pity that yearned to relieve, to atone; but how,--oh, how?

A general election was now at hand, still no news of Nora. Levy kept
aloof from Audley, pursuing his own silent search. A seat for the
borough of Lansmere was pressed upon Audley, not only by Harley, but his
parents, especially by the countess, who tacitly ascribed to Audley's
wise counsels Nora's mysterious disappearance.

Egerton at first resisted the thought of a new obligation to his injured
friend; but he burned to have it, some day, in his power to repay at
least his pecuniary debt: the sense of that debt humbled him more
than all else. Parliamentary success might at last obtain for him some
lucrative situation abroad, and thus enable him gradually to remove
this load from his heart and his honour. No other chance of repayment
appeared open to him. He accepted the offer, and went down to Lansmere.
His brother, lately married, was asked to meet him; and there also
was Miss Leslie the