g wing over
the vines and flowers of these odor-breathing, beam-lighted gardens?

There were low voices in one of the most obscure alcoves, and a man and
woman stood in close proximity in its dimmest recess.

A low sigh or sob now and then escaped the woman, as though she
struggled to suppress some choking emotion.

"Come," said the man at length, impatiently, "this blubbering will not
aid your purpose."

"O, Herbert!" she exclaimed, in a tone which entreated compassion, "you
have ceased to love me."

"Ceased to love you?" repeated he, with a low, ironical laugh, "I never
yet began."

"You told me so," said she.

"What if I did?" returned he; "is my veracity so immaculate that my
slightest word is received as an oath of probity? But I came not here to
keep a lover's tryst. You know, or at least I thought you knew, the bond
that unites us; and I ask you again if you will do my bidding and serve
my interests?"

"I have done both," said the woman; "but you have not fulfilled your
promises to me."

"Do you not see the boy when you choose?"

"I see him, but he does not recognize me."

"The better for you that he does not," returned the man. "Do you
suppose, with his position and prospects, he would acknowledge a low
serving-woman for a mother? He would kick her from his presence and
cover her with curses."

"And do you never intend to tell him who is his mother?" asked the
woman, in a trembling tone.

"Certainly not," answered he; "'tis not necessary the boy should know
his own disgrace; but when the proper moment arrives, there are those
who shall learn his parentage to their everlasting shame and
mortification."

"I see no prospect of that moment's ever arriving," said the woman.
"Here's the girl and her father gone off, the Lord knows where, or
whether they will ever return, and all things left unfinished and
incomplete. I must say you manage as an idiot."

"I will judge of my own management," said the man, fiercely. "There has
been sickness in my family, and other things have indisposed me to hurry
a revenge which will be the sweeter the longer 'tis delayed."

"But it may be so long delayed as to fail altogether," suggested the
woman.

"I'll take care of that," answered he. "I fancy I am not so great a
bungler as to overshoot my purposes and baffle my own designs; and,
woman," said he, raising his arm threateningly above her head, "I
caution you to beware. I believe you have already let drop some