priest of papal Rome. I did all this,
thinking, for a time, my salvation dependent on it. You know all now."

Mr. Stewart regarded her sadly as she uttered these words, and his
stern tone softened as he noticed her bloodless cheek and quivering
lip.

"Florence, it is not your former belief or practise that gives me this
pain, and saddens our future. If you were at this moment a professor
of the Romish faith, I would still cherish and trust you: I should
strive to convince you of your error--to point out the fallacy of your
hopes. When I recall the circumstances by which you were surrounded,
and the influences exerted, I scarcely wonder that, for a time, you
lent your credence and support. But, Florence, full well you know that
this is not what pains me. It is the consciousness that you have
kept me in ignorance of what your own heart told you would show your
momentary weakness, and led me to suppose you entertained a belief at
variance with your practise. You have feared my displeasure more than
the disregard of truth and candor. Florence, Florence! knowing how
well I loved you, and what implicit confidence I reposed in you, how
could you do this?"

"Again, Mr. Stewart, I repeat that I perceive no culpability in my
conduct. Had I felt it my duty, your love or indifference would not
have weighed an atom in my decision to act according to my sense of
right and wrong."

He turned from her, and paced to and fro before the fire. Florence
would have left the room, but Mary clasped her dress, and detained
her.

"Mr. Stewart, you have been too harsh and hasty in your decision, and
too severe in your remarks. Florry has not forfeited your love, though
she acted imprudently. Ask your own heart whether you would be willing
to expose to her eye your every foible and weakness. For you, like all
God's creatures, have faults of your own. Is there nothing you have
left untold relative to your past? Oh! if you knew how deep and
unutterable has been her love, even when she never again expected to
meet you, you would forget this momentary weakness--a fault committed
from the very intensity of her love, and fear lest she should sink in
your estimation."

"Mary, if she had said, Dudley, I have not always felt as now, and my
mind was darkened for a time, I should have loved her, if possible,
more than before, for her noble candor. My own heart would have told
me, This is one in whom you may eternally trust, for she risked the
forfe