"There is one hope, Gabriella, to which I have looked forward as the
sheet-anchor of my soul; if that fails me, I do not care what becomes of
me. Sometimes it has burned so brightly, it has been my morning and
evening star, my rising, but unsetting sun. To-night the star is dim.
Clouds of doubt and apprehension gather over it. Gabriella,--I cannot
live in this suspense, and yet I could not bear the confirmation of my
fears. Better to doubt than to despair."

"Richard, why will you persist in talking of what cannot be explained
here? Shall we not meet hereafter, and have abundant opportunities for
conversation, free and uninterrupted? Look around, and see how
differently other people are conversing. How lightly and carelessly
their words come and go, mingled with merry laughter! Edith is at the
piano. Let us go where we can listen, we cannot do it here."

"I _am_ very selfish!" said he, yielding to my suggestion. "I have
promised my classmates to introduce them to you. I see some of them,
bending reproachful glances this way. I must redeem my character, so as
not to incur disgrace in the parting hour."

Then followed introductions pressing on each other, till I was weary of
hearing my own name, Miss Lynn. I never did like to be called Miss.
Still it was an unspeakable relief to me, to be released from the
necessity of repressing the feelings of others, and guarding my own. It
was a relief to hear those unmeaning sayings which are the current coin
of society, and to utter without effort the first light thought that
came floating on the surface. The rest of the evening I was surrounded
by strangers, and the most exacting vanity might have been satisfied
with the incense I received. I knew that the protection of Mrs. Linwood
gave a _prestige_ to me that would not otherwise have been mine, but I
could not help perceiving that Edith, the heiress, all lovely as she
was, was not half as much courted and admired as the _daughter of the
outcast_. I was too young, too much of a novice, not to be pleased with
the attention I attracted; but when the heart is awakened, vanity has
but little power. It is a cold, vapory conceit, that vanishes before the
inner warmth and light, which, like the sun in the firmament, "shineth
brighter and brighter to the perfect day."

After Edith retired from the instrument there was a buzz, and a
sensation, and Miss Melville, or Meg the Dauntless, as I could not help
mentally calling her, was escort