n, as he had done repeatedly, that my mother
never had laid aside, and never would lay aside, her rancour towards me;
and that she would grasp at the first opportunity of taking any
vengeance upon me, which my presence should afford her.

He did not believe, he said, that my father would be able long to
preserve from her the secret of my being alive, and of my having raised
myself to a condition of comparative affluence; nor did he feel by any
means assured that, while labouring under the revulsion of feelings
which the happy tidings would work upon his mind, my mother would not
recover her ascendancy over him.

Beyond this, he could say nothing; for as a young Frenchman, and more
especially a young French soldier, he knew even less about the laws of
France, and the rights of parents over children, than did Judge Selwyn;
only, like the Judge, he was inclined to the opinion that I had better
not trust myself within the limits of any jurisdiction which might be
called upon to hand me over to the parental authority, until such time
as I should be completely my own mistress as regarded them, which
probably could only be effected by ceasing to be my own mistress as
regarded some one else.

"For be assured, Valerie," he added, "that the possession of your person
for the purpose of annoying you, and avenging herself on you for all the
sufferings she has undergone in consequence of your supposed suicide,
will become the darling object of her life, so sure as she learns that
you are in the land of the living; and the fact of your having secured
to yourself a little fortune will not act as a check upon her
inclinations."

I sighed deeply; for, although I felt and knew the truth of all he said,
and expected that he would say it, his words seemed to extinguish the
last spark of hope in my heart; and it is a bitter and painful thing in
any case for a daughter to feel that she shall in all probability never
again be permitted to see the authors of her life, or the companions and
scenes of her childhood; but it is doubly so when she feels it to be the
fault of the wickedness or weakness of those whom she would fain love
and esteem, but cannot.

The good Judge marked my emotion, and, laying his hand kindly on my
shoulder, said, "You must not give way, my dear girl; you have done all
that is right and true and honest; and the course which you have taken
has been forced upon you. To yield now, and return home to be tortured
and de