stion, my dear sister?" he said. "If I
answer it, what good will it do? Why should I solve a mystery, that, if
you love this Alphingham, as this extreme depression bids me believe,
must bring but increase of pain?"

"Percy," replied Caroline, raising her head, and standing with returning
dignity before him, "Percy, do not let the idea of my love bid you
hesitate. Increase of pain I do not think is possible; but yet, do not
mistake me, that pain does not spring from disappointed affection.
Percy, I do not love Lord Alphingham; I have been fascinated, and the
remembrance of the past still clings to me with remorse and suffering;
but I never loved him as, had I not been infatuated and blind, had I not
rejected the counsels and confidence of my mother, I might have loved
another. You know not how I have been led on, how I have permitted
myself to be but a tool in the hands of those whose independence I
admired, and aided them by my own reckless folly--the wish to prove,
however differently I was educated, still I could act with equal spirit.
Had it not been for that self-will, that perverse spirit, I might now
have been a happy and a virtuous wife, loving and esteeming that
superior being, whose affections I wilfully cast away; but that matters
not now," she added, hurriedly. "My mother was right, I was unworthy to
share his lot; but of this rest assured, I do not love, I never have
loved, for I cannot esteem Lord Alphingham."

"But why then wish to know more concerning him?" Percy said, much
relieved by his sister's words, and more pleased than he chose to
appear by her allusion to St. Eval. "Is it not enough your connection
with him is entirely broken off?"

"No, Percy; I have rejected him, dissolved our engagement, I scarcely
know wherefore, except that I felt I could not be his without my
father's consent; but there are times I feel as if I had treated him
unjustly, that I have had no cause to think ill of him; my conduct had
encouraged him. To me he has been devoted and respectful, and though I
could not, would not be his wife, yet these thoughts linger on my mind,
and add most painfully to the chaos already there."

Twice Percy slowly traversed the room, with a countenance on which
anxious thought was deeply imprinted. He paused opposite to Caroline,
took both her hands in his, and spoke in a voice which, though low, was
so solemn that it thrilled to her inmost soul.

"Caroline, I had hoped the fatal secret made