--the sweet bright tears that love
alone can bring forth--bedewed her cheeks.

"Are you married?" now inquired Clotelle, with a palpitating heart and
trembling voice.

"No, I am not, and never have been," was Jerome's reply.

"Then, thank God!" she exclaimed, in broken accents.

It was then that hope gleamed up amid the crushed and broken flowers of
her heart, and a bright flash darted forth like a sunbeam.

"Are you single now?" asked Jerome.

"Yes, I am," was the answer.

"Then you will be mine after all?" said he with a smile.

Her dark, rich hair had partly come down, and hung still more loosely
over her shoulders than when she first appeared; and her eyes, now full
of animation and vivacity, and her sweet, harmonious, and well-modulated
voice, together with her modesty, self-possession, and engaging manners,
made Clotelle appear lovely beyond description. Although past the age
when men ought to think of matrimony, yet the scene before Mr. Devenant
brought vividly to his mind the time when he was young and had a loving
bosom companion living, and tears were wiped from the old man's eyes. A
new world seemed to unfold itself before the eyes of the happy lovers,
and they were completely absorbed in contemplating the future. Furnished
by nature with a disposition to study, and a memory so retentive that
all who knew her were surprised at the ease with which she acquired her
education and general information, Clotelle might now be termed a
most accomplished lady. After her marriage with young Devenant, they
proceeded to India, where the husband's regiment was stationed. Soomn
after their arrival, however, a battle was fought with the natives, in
which several officers fell, among whom was Captain Devenant. The father
of the young captain being there at the time, took his daughter-in-law
and brought her back to France, where they took up their abode at the
old homestead. Old Mr. Devenant was possessed of a large fortune, all of
which he intended for his daughter-in-law and her only child.

Although Clotelle had married young Devenant, she had not forgotten her
first love, and her father-in-law now willingly gave his consent to her
marriage with Jerome. Jerome felt that to possess the woman of his love,
even at that late hour, was compensation enough for the years that he
had been separated from her, and Clotelle wanted no better evidence of
his love for her than the fact of his having remained so long unmarried.