she knew he was not--deficient in them himself, and
stronger than ever became her secret wish; but she hastily banished it,
and gave her sole attention to the interesting subjects on which St.
Eval continued to speak.

For some few hours after supper the ball continued, with even, perhaps,
more spirit than it had commenced; but St. Eval did not ask Caroline to
dance again. He fancied she preferred Alphingham's attentions, and his
sensitive mind shrunk from being again refused. Caroline knew not the
heart of him over whom she had resolved to use her power, perhaps if she
had, she would have hesitated in her determination. The least
encouragement made his heart glow with an uncontrollable sensation of
exquisite pleasure, while repulse bade it sink back with an equal if not
a greater degree of pain. St. Eval was conscious of this weakness in his
character; he was aware that he possessed a depth of feeling, which
unless steadily controlled, would tend only to his misery; and it was
for this he clothed himself in impenetrable reserve, and obtained from
the world the character of being proud and disagreeable. He dreaded the
first entrance of love within his bosom, for instinctively he felt that
his very sensitiveness would render the passion more his misery than his
joy. We are rather sceptics in the doctrine of love at first sight, but
in this case it was fervid and enduring, as if it had risen on the solid
basis of intimacy and esteem. From the first hour he had spent in the
society of Caroline Hamilton, Eugene St. Eval loved. He tried to subdue
and conquer his newly-awakened feelings, and would think he had
succeeded, but the next hour he passed in her society brought the truth
clearer than ever before his eyes; her image alone occupied his heart.
He shrunk, in his overwrought sensitiveness, from paying her those
attentions which would have marked his preference; he did not wish to
excite the remarks of the world, nor did he feel that he possessed
sufficient courage to bear the repulse, with which, if she did not
regard him, and if she were the girl he fancied her, she would cheek his
forwardness. But his heart beat high, and it was with some difficulty he
controlled his emotion, when he perceived that Caroline refused to dance
even with Lord Alphingham on several occasions, to continue conversing
with himself. How his noble spirit would have chafed and bled, could he
have known it was love of power and coquetry that dicta