when addressed in such a tone. Oh, I cannot."

"Gabriella! this is not a moment to trifle. Tell me, without
prevarication,--were you, or were you not in the Park, walking with a
gentleman, on the morning you left for Mrs. Brahan's? Answer me,--yes,
or no."

Had he spoken with gentleness,--had he seemed moved to sorrow as well as
indignation, I would have thrown myself at his feet, and deprecated his
anger; but my spirit rose in rebellion at the stern despotism of his
manner, and nerved itself to resist his coercive will.

Truly is it said, "We know not what manner of spirit we are of."

I little thought how high mine could rebound from the strong pressure
which, in anticipation, crushed it to the dust.

I felt firm to endure, strong to resist.

"Ernest! I have done you no wrong," I answered, raising my eyes to his
pale, dark countenance. "I have done nothing to merit the displeasure
which makes you forget the courtesy of a gentleman, as well as the
tenderness of a husband."

"Then it was a false report," he exclaimed,--a ray of light flashing
from his clouded eyes,--"you could not look me in the face and speak in
that tone unless you were innocent! Why did you not deny it at once?"

"Only listen to me, Ernest," I cried; "only give me a patient, gentle
hearing, and I will give you a history, which I am certain will convert
your indignation into sympathy, and free me from suspicion or blame."

I armed myself with resolution to tell him all. My father was in all
probability far away on the billows of the Atlantic. My disclosures
could not affect him now. My promise of secrecy did not extend into the
future. I would gladly have withheld from my husband the knowledge of
his degradation, for it was humiliating to the child to reveal the
parent's shame. Criminal he knew him to be, with regard to my mother,
but Ernest had said, when gazing on her picture, he almost forgave the
crime which had so much to extenuate it. The gambler, the profligate,
the lost, abandoned being, who had thrown himself so abjectly on my
compassion: in these characters, the high-minded Ernest would spurn him
with withering indignation. Yet as the interview had been observed, and
his suspicions excited, it was my duty to make an unreserved
confession,--and I did. Conscious of the purity of my motives, and
assured that he must eventually acquit me of blame, I told him all, from
the note he dropped into my lap at the theatre, to the diamond caske