ain, and false. Pause but for one moment, and
reflect. Can there he happiness without virtue, peace without integrity?
Is there pleasure without truth? Was deception productive of felicity to
me? Oh, no, no. That visit to London, that introduction in the gay world
to which I looked forward with so much joy, the retrospection of which I
hoped would have enlivened Oakwood, oh, what does it present? A dreary
waste of life, varied only by remorse. Had my career been yours, you
would perhaps have looked on it differently; but I cannot. Oh, Annie,
once more, I beseech, let not such principles actuate your future
conduct; they are wrong, they will load to misery here, and what
preparation are they for eternity?

"Farewell, and may God bless you! We shall not, perhaps, meet again till
next season, and then it cannot be as we have parted. An interest in
your welfare I shall ever feel, but intimacy must be at an end between
us.

"CAROLINE."

CHAPTER VIII.

There was a dark lowering frown obscuring the noble and usually open
brow of the young heir of Oakwood, and undisguised anger visible in
every feature and every movement, as he paced the library with
disordered steps, about ten days after the events we have recorded, and
three since his return from college. He had crossed his arms on his
chest, which was swelling with the emotion he was with difficulty
repressing, and his tall, elegant figure appeared to increase in height
beneath his indignant and, in this case, just displeasure.

Caroline's depression had not decreased since her brother's arrival. She
felt she had been unjust to Percy, and a degree of coldness which had
appeared at first in his conduct towards her, occasioned, though she
knew it not, by her rejection of his friend St. Eval, which he believed
was occasioned by her love of Alphingham, whom he fancied she still
continued to regard with an eye of favour; both these causes created
reserve and distance between the brother and sister, in lieu of that
cordiality which had hitherto subsisted between them.

Percy had not been aware of all that had passed between the Viscount and
Caroline till that morning, when Emmeline, hoping to soften his manner
towards her sister, related, with all her natural eloquence, the
Viscount's conduct, and the triumph of duty which Caroline had achieved.
That he had even asked her of his father, Percy knew not till then, and
it was this intelligence bursting on him at once w