r thoughts might riot wander during those solitary hours in the
paths of folly or of sin, but once centred on serious things, her mind
might thence become strengthened and her judgment ripened.

These lonely hours did much towards the formation of the orphan's
character. Accustomed thus to commune with her Creator, to gather
strength in the solitude of her chamber, she was enabled, when her trial
came, to meet it with a spirit most acceptable to Him who had ordained
it.

CHAPTER XI.

Lord Malvern's family and Mr. Hamilton's were still in town, though the
younger members of each were longing for the fresh air of the country.

One afternoon, hot and dusty from rapid riding, the young Earl St. Eval
hastily, and somewhat discomposedly, entered his sister Lady Gertrude's
private room.

"Thank heaven, you are alone!" was his exclamation, as he entered; but
throwing himself moodily on a couch, he did not seem inclined to say
more.

"What is the matter, dear Eugene? Something has disturbed you," said
Lady Gertrude, soothingly, and in a tone tending rather to allay his
irritation than express her own desire to know what had happened.

"Something--yes, Gertrude, enough to bid me forswear England again, and
bury myself in a desert, where a sigh from your sex could never reach me
more."

"Not even mine, Eugene?" exclaimed his sister, laying down her work, and
seating herself on a stool at his feet, while she looked up in his
excited features with an expression of fondness on her placid
countenance. "Would you indeed forbid my company, if I implored to share
your solitude?"

"My sister, my own kind sister, would I, could I deprive myself of the
blessing, the comfort your presence ever brings?" replied St. Eval,
earnestly. "No, dearest Gertrude, I could not refuse you, whatever you
might ask."

"Then tell me now what it is that has disturbed you thus. With what new
fancy are you tormenting yourself?"

"Nay, this is no fancy, Gertrude. You are, you have been wrong from the
first, and I am too painfully right Caroline does not and never will
love me."

Lady Gertrude started.

"Have you been again rejected?" she demanded, a dark flush of indignant
pride suffusing her cheek.

Lord St. Eval mournfully smiled.

"You are as summary in your conclusions as you say I am sometimes. No,
Gertrude, I have not; I feel as if I could not undergo the torture I
once experienced in saying those words which I hoped would seal