signation--"The heart will break, but brokenly
live on;" and thus it was she lived, existing for her child alone. Nine
years they had been parted, and Agnes had ever shrunk in evident pain
from quitting her native land, and the cottage which had been the scene
of her brief months of happiness; but when change of air was pleaded in
behalf of her child, then suffering from lingering fever, when change of
climate was strongly recommended by the physicians, in secret for
herself equally with that of her little girl, she hesitated no longer,
and a throb of mingled pain and pleasure swelled her too fond heart as
her foot pressed the native land of her husband. Some friends of her
mother, unacquainted with her sad story, resided near Oxford, and
thither they bent their steps, and finally fixed their residence, where
Mrs. Amesfort soon had the happiness of beholding her child restored to
perfect health and radiant in beauty; perhaps the faint hope that
Alphingham might one day unconsciously behold his daughter, reconciled
her to this residence in England. She was in his own land; she might
hear of him, of his happiness; and, deeply injured as she was, that
knowledge, to her too warm, too devoted heart was all-sufficient.

Such were the particulars of the story which Percy concisely yet fully
related in confidence to his sister. Caroline neither moved nor spoke
during his recital; her features still retained their deadly paleness,
and her brother almost involuntarily felt alarmed. A few words she said,
as he ceased, in commentary on his tale, and her voice was calm. Nor did
her step falter as she quitted the library, and returned to her own
room, when, carefully closing the door, she sunk on the nearest seat,
and covering her eyes with her hands, as if to shut out all outward
objects, gave unchecked dominion to the incongruous thoughts occasioned
by Percy's tale. She could not define or banish them; a sudden
oppression appeared cast upon her brain, deadening its powers, and
preventing all relief from tears. The ruin, the wretchedness from which
she had been mercifully preserved stood foremost in her mind, all else
appeared a strange and frightful dream. The wife and child of Alphingham
flitted like mocking phantoms before her eyes, and the countenance of
Alphingham himself glared at her, and his gibing laugh seemed to scream
in her ears, and transform him into a malignant fiend revelling in the
misery he had created. She strove t