ch I considered as the happiest period of
my life--those delightful days were to embitter all my future ones. How
often I have looked back to them with hope and fear--yet never till
this moment could I prevail with myself to regret their enchanting
influence.'

His voice faltered, and he abruptly quitted his seat and walked on the
terrace. There was an expression of despair on his countenance, that
affected Emily. The pleadings of her heart overcame, in some degree, her
extreme timidity, and, when he resumed his seat, she said, in an accent
that betrayed her tenderness, 'You do both yourself and me injustice
when you say I think you unworthy of my esteem; I will acknowledge that
you have long possessed it, and--and--'

Valancourt waited impatiently for the conclusion of the sentence,
but the words died on her lips. Her eyes, however, reflected all the
emotions of her heart. Valancourt passed, in an instant, from the
impatience of despair, to that of joy and tenderness. 'O Emily!' he
exclaimed, 'my own Emily--teach me to sustain this moment! Let me seal
it as the most sacred of my life!'

He pressed her hand to his lips, it was cold and trembling; and, raising
her eyes, he saw the paleness of her countenance. Tears came to her
relief, and Valancourt watched in anxious silence over her. In a few
moments, she recovered herself, and smiling faintly through her tears,
said, 'Can you excuse this weakness? My spirits have not yet, I believe,
recovered from the shock they lately received.'

'I cannot excuse myself,' said Valancourt, 'but I will forbear to renew
the subject, which may have contributed to agitate them, now that I can
leave you with the sweet certainty of possessing your esteem.'

Then, forgetting his resolution, he again spoke of himself. 'You know
not,' said he, 'the many anxious hours I have passed near you lately,
when you believed me, if indeed you honoured me with a thought, far
away. I have wandered, near the chateau, in the still hours of the
night, when no eye could observe me. It was delightful to know I was so
near you, and there was something particularly soothing in the thought,
that I watched round your habitation, while you slept. These grounds are
not entirely new to me. Once I ventured within the fence, and spent one
of the happiest, and yet most melancholy hours of my life in walking
under what I believed to be your window.'

Emily enquired how long Valancourt had been in the neighbourhood.