n
intercourse, without any object to live for, without motives to
exertion--without aims, purpose, occupation--with a brand upon us that
seemed stamped upon our foreheads, so that we dared not venture into the
haunts of our fellow-men, lest they should shun us or expel us from
among them--this prospect, as time advanced, grew darker and darker, and
Astraea, still buoyant and energetic, and strong in her resolves,
relinquished slowly the charming pictures she had drawn in her
imagination, and came down to the most prosaic views of our position,
tinged from day to day with tints that grew more and more sombre. The
bright colors of the poetry had all faded.

With the agent of my property in the north I was in constant
correspondence. To him alone I confided my address, and through him
received all letters and communications that were left for me in London
or elsewhere. Strange to say, that for three months no intelligence
reached us concerning the dwarf; nor had I any means of procuring
information, unless I intrusted my agent with my secret, which I
considered unsafe. I was unwilling to originate any inquiry on the
subject. It was for him to seek me, not for me to follow him. He could
have had no difficulty in reaching me by a letter, and his silence
seemed to imply either that he had abandoned all further thoughts of
revenge, or, which was more likely, that he was dead.

As the days shortened into winter, and the howling winds came early in
the evenings, and drove us home a dreary hour or two before dinner, to
get through the interval as well as we could by the fireside, our
reserve on personal matters gradually wore off, and it became a relief
to us to talk freely upon the topics which we had hitherto been
reluctant to approach. These wintry conversations, leading to nothing,
yet wonderfully animated by bitterness of spirit, showed the change that
Astraea's character was undergoing. She was more easily chafed by
contradiction than she used to be, and dwelt more upon words, and small
points, and trifles which formerly she would have hurried over with
indifference; conversation degenerated, I could hardly tell how, into
discussion; and notwithstanding the ascendency and elevation of her
language and her manner, I could see that there was less real strength
behind, and that beneath the calmness which still sat loftily upon her,
there was much secret and repressed agitation. Sometimes she presented
to me the idea of a wom