he same quiet way
that I love you; you admire me, perhaps, more than anyone you chance to
know just now; you are partial to my beauty, and, from long habit, have
come to regard me as your property, much in the same light as that in which
you look upon your costly diamond buttons, or your high-spirited horses, or
rare imported pointers. Hugh, I abhor sham! and I tell you now that I never
will be a party to that which others have arranged without my consent."

"Ah! I see how matters stand. Having disposed of your heart, and lavished
your love elsewhere, you shrink from fulfilling the sacred obligations that
make you mine. I little dreamed that you were so susceptible, else I had
not left you feeling so secure. My uncle has not proved the faithful
guardian I believed him when I entrusted my treasure, my affianced bride to
his care."

Bitter disappointment flashed in his face and quivered in his voice,
rendering him reckless of consequences. But though he gazed fiercely at her
as he uttered the taunt, it produced not the faintest visible effect.

"Confess who stands between your heart and mine. I have a right to ask; I
will know."

"You forget yourself, my cousin. Your right is obviously a debatable
question; we will waive it, if you please. I have told you already, and now
I repeat it for the last time, I will not go with you to the altar, because
neither of us has proper affection for the other to warrant such a union;
because it would be an infamous pecuniary contract, revolting to every true
soul. Hugh, cherish no animosity against me; I merit none. Because we
cannot be more, shall we be less than friends?"

She turned to leave him, but he caught her dress, and exclaimed, with more
tenderness than he had ever manifested before--

"Oh, Irene! do not reject me utterly! I cannot relinquish you. Give me one
more year to prove my love--to win yours. If your proud heart is still your
own, may I not hope to obtain it by----"

"No, Hugh! no. As well hope to inspire affection in yonder mute marble
guardians. Forgive me if I pain you, but I must be candid at every hazard."
She pointed to the statues near the door, and went through the greenhouse
to the library, thence to the observatory, expecting, ere long, to be
joined by her father. Gradually the house became quiet, and, oppressed with
the painful sense of coming trouble, she sought her own room just as the
clock struck twelve. Pausing to count the strokes, she saw a lig