erson to Devereux Court on
horseback, and sending my servant with my luggage in my post-chaise.
The equestrian mode of travelling is, indeed to this day, the one most
pleasing to me; and the reader will find me pursuing it many years
afterwards, and to the same spot.

I might as well observe here that I had never intrusted Desmarais--no,
nor one of my own servants--with the secret of my marriage with, or my
visits to, Isora. I am a very fastidious person on those matters; and
of all confidants, even in the most trifling affairs, I do most eschew
those by whom we have the miserable honour of being served.

In order, then, to avoid having my horse brought me to Isora's house by
any of these menial spies, I took the steed which I had selected for my
journey, and rode to Isora's with the intention of spending the evening
there, and thence commencing my excursion with the morning light.

CHAPTER II.

LOVE; PARTING; A DEATH-BED.--AFTER ALL HUMAN NATURE IS A BEAUTIFUL
FABRIC; AND EVEN ITS IMPERFECTIONS ARE NOT ODIOUS TO HIM WHO HAS STUDIED
THE SCIENCE OF ITS ARCHITECTURE, AND FORMED A REVERENT ESTIMATE OF ITS
CREATOR.

IT is a noticeable thing how much fear increases love. I mean--for the
aphorism requires explanation--how much we love in proportion to our
fear of losing (or even to our fear of injury done to) the beloved
object. 'Tis an instance of the reaction of the feelings: the love
produces the fear, and the fear reproduces the love. This is one reason,
among many, why women love so much more tenderly and anxiously than we
do; and it is also one reason among many why frequent absences are,
in all stages of love, the most keen exciters of the passion. I never
breathed, away from Isora, without trembling for her safety. I trembled
lest this Barnard, if so I should still continue to call her persecutor,
should again discover and again molest her. Whenever (and that was
almost daily) I rode to the quiet and remote dwelling I had procured
her, my heart beat so vehemently, and my agitation was so intense,
that on arriving at the gate I have frequently been unable, for several
minutes, to demand admittance. There was, therefore, in the mysterious
danger which ever seemed to hang over Isora, a perpetual irritation to
a love otherwise but little inclined to slumber; and this constant
excitement took away from the torpor into which domestic affection too
often languishes, and increased my passion even while it diminished