had been too much for her on these occasions, and that in
reality the sudden clutching was the approach of love's crisis, and
that when she shuddered, and suddenly repulsed me, she was discharging.
It was evident this could not continue. At last the happy day for which
I so longed arrived. Mamma was going to go to the town, and taking my
two sisters with her, to get something or other for them. She invited
Miss Evelyn to accompany her, but the latter declined, on the excuse of
an alleged headache. In truth, the violent nature of the conflict going
on between her passions and her prudence had visibly affected her
health; she had become pale and anxious-looking, and my mother was
somewhat uneasy about her. She told her not to occupy herself too much
with my lessons that day, and only give me work for an hour in the
morning and an hour in the afternoon, and begged her to take a quiet
stroll in the garden, and rest as much as possible.

On leaving us, she cautioned me to be as gentle and obedient as
possible, as Miss Evelyn was poorly and out of spirits. Mamma and the
girls departed. Miss Evelyn, almost as pale as death, and quite visibly
trembling, falteringly begged me to go to our school-room and study the
lesson she had given me the previous evening, saying she would join me
shortly. I went, but no lesson could I do that day. The evident
agitation and apparent illness of Miss Evelyn distressed if not alarmed
me; I was still too inexperienced in her mind. It was a phase of
woman's nature which I had as yet no knowledge of. I had merely a vague
kind of idea that it all tended to the ultimate gratification of my
libidinous hopes, and I only held off to a certain extent in obedience
to the counsel my loved Mrs. Benson had so wisely impressed upon me,
and was waiting in lively, hopes of the result I so ardently wished for.

At last Miss Evelyn joined me, her eyes were swollen and red as if she
had been weeping; my own filled with tears when I saw her, and I
approached, hesitatingly, and said--

"Oh, my dear governess, I am so grieved to see you look so poorly. Oh,
do nothing to-day, and I promise to work twice as hard to-morrow."

At the moment I really felt quite distressed at the sad expression of
her features. For an instant she smiled languidly, then, by some
compulsion of feeling, she seized me in both arms and drawing me to her
bosom, covered me with kisses; her eyes became almost perfectly
brilliant.

"Oh, you de