hey belong to the blood that flows in his veins,--they are
part and lot of his existence,--they are the phantoms that haunted his
father's path, and cast their chill shadows over the brief years of my
married life. The remembrance of what I have suffered myself, makes me
tremble for her who places her happiness in my son's keeping. A woman
cannot be happy unless she is trusted."

"Not if she is beloved!" I exclaimed. "It seems to me that love should
cover every fault, and jealousy be pardoned without an effort, since it
is a proof of the strength and fervor of one's affection. Let me be
loved,--I ask no more."

"You love my son, Gabriella?"

"Love him!" I repeated,--"oh that you could look into my heart!"

Blushing at the fervor of my manner, I turned my crimson face from her
gaze. Then I remembered that he knew not yet what might place an
insurmountable barrier between us, and I entreated Mrs. Linwood to tell
him what I wanted courage to relate.

"I will, my child, but it will make no difference with him. His high,
chivalrous sense of honor will make the circumstances of your birth but
a new claim on his protection,--and his purposes are as immovable as his
passions are strong. But let us talk no more to-night. It is late, and
you need rest. We will renew the subject when you are more composed--I
might say both. I could not give you a greater proof of my interest in
your happiness, than the allusion I have made to my past life. Never
before have I lifted the curtain from errors which death has sanctified.
Let the confidence be sacred. Ernest and Edith must never know that a
shadow rested on their father's virtues. Nothing but the hope of saving
you from the sufferings which once were mine, could have induced me to
rend the veil from the temple of my heart."

"How solemn, how chilling are your words," said I, feeling very faint
and sad. "I wish I had not heard them. Do joy and sorrow always thus go
hand in hand? In the last few hours I have known the two great extremes
of life. I have been plunged into the depths of despair and raised to
the summit of hope. I am dizzy and weak by the sudden transition. I will
retire, dear madam, for my head feels strangely bewildered."

Mrs. Linwood embraced me with unusual tenderness, kissed me on both
cheeks, and accompanied me to the door with a fervent "God bless you!"

CHAPTER XXVIII.

As soon as I reached my chamber, I threw myself on my bed, which seemed
to roll