r. Do not fancy,--I repeat, do not fancy that there
is any error, any strange infatuation on my mind, that there is any
possibility that the sentence can be annulled. It were almost easier to
call the dead from the grave than bring us again together, as we were
and as we hoped to be. Now that you are convinced of that truth, learn,
as soon as you have recovered the first shock of knowing how much
wickedness there is on earth,--learn to turn to the future for happier
and more suitable ties than those you could have formed with me. You
are very young; in youth our first impressions are lively but
evanescent,--you will wonder hereafter at having fancied you loved me.
Another and a fairer image will replace mine. This is what I desire and
pray for. _As soon as I learn that you love another, that you are wedded
to another, I will re-appear in the world; till then, I am a wanderer
and an exile. Your hand alone can efface from my brow the brand of
Cain!_ When I am gone, Lord Vargrave will probably renew his suit. I
would rather you married one of your own years,--one whom you could love
fondly, one who would chase away every remembrance of the wretch who
now forsakes you. But perhaps I have mistaken Lord Vargrave's character;
perhaps he may be worthier of you than I deemed (_I_ who set up for
the censor of other men!); perhaps he may both win and deserve your
affection.

Evelyn, farewell! God, who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, will
watch over you!

ERNEST MALTRAVERS.

CHAPTER V.

OUR acts our angels are, or good or ill,
The fatal shadows that walk by us still.--JOHN FLETCHER.

THE next morning came; the carriage was at the door of Maltravers, to
bear him away he cared not whither. Where could he fly from memory? He
had just despatched the letter to Evelyn,--a letter studiously written
for the object of destroying all the affection to which he had so fondly
looked as the last charm of life. He was now only waiting for Vargrave,
to whom he had sent, and who hastened to obey the summons.

When Lumley arrived, he was shocked at the alteration which a single
night had effected in the appearance of Maltravers; but he was surprised
and relieved to find him calm and self-possessed.

"Vargrave," said Maltravers, "whatever our past coldness, henceforth I
owe to you an eternal gratitude; and henceforth this awful secret makes
between us an indissoluble bond. If I have understood you rightly,
neither Alice