hing up the neck
of a broken bottle, he hurled it fiercely at Wilkins, who was
approaching him.

It glanced--turned aside by the head-clerk's self-defending hand--and
struck Guly upon the temple. With a faint moan he sank bleeding to the
floor, clasping his mother's Bible to his breast.

CHAPTER XXV.

"Rather will Ellen Douglas dwell
A votress in Maronan's cell--
Rather through realms beyond the sea,
Seeking the world's cold charity,
An outcast pilgrim will she rove--
Than wed the man she cannot love."

Scott.

"Who rang the bell, Minny?" inquired Della one morning, as she sat
looking over a richly-bound volume of engravings, a recent gift from her
father.

"General Delville, Miss."

"Has mamma gone into the drawing-room?"

"Not yet, Miss; she is preparing to do so."

"Well, Minny, do you go to her, and tell her that Della says, please not
go in this morning, she wishes to see General Delville alone."

"Oh, Miss Della, she would never consent to your seeing him alone in the
world. I'm certain she won't; and there is scarcely any use of asking
her."

"Do as I tell you, Minny dear."

Minny went out.

Since the evening of the party, the General had been very assiduous in
his attentions; waiting upon Mrs. Delancey and her daughter to concerts,
operas, theatres, and every other place which he believed would be
interesting and entertaining to them. His bouquets for Miss Della were
always selected with the greatest care and taste, and had the fair
recipient been possessed of sufficient patience to study out their
language, she would have found the General by no means ignorant of that
delicate manner of expressing thoughts which lose their chief beauty by
being spoken.

Mrs. Delancey, with a watchfulness highly commendable, had never allowed
Della and the General to remain a moment alone together; and she
triumphantly declared, to her _very intimate and confidential_ friends,
that not a sentence of admiration or esteem had the General ever
uttered, but what she had listened to, as well as Della; and that she
should, of course, as much expect to be present when he made his
declaration, as to have Della herself there.

Twice had Della summoned courage to declare, in the presence of both her
parents, that if General Delville came with any idea of winning her love
she wished his visits to cease; for marry him she never would; but both
times had she met with such stormy rep