e, and have forgotten everything but the
severe affliction under which you laboured. By degrees I should have
become attached to my work of commiseration, and, probably, the very
cares and sacrifices it would have required to fulfil my voluntary duty;
for which your grateful appreciation would have been a rich reward. I
might, at last--But what ails you, my lord? Are you ill? Surely you are
weeping!"

"But they are tears of pure delight. Ah, you can scarcely imagine what
new emotions are awakened in my heart! Heed not my tears, beloved
Clemence; trust me, they flow from an excess of happiness, arising from
those dear words you just now uttered. Never did I seem so guilty in my
own eyes as I now appear, for having selfishly bound you to such a life
as mine!"

"And never did I find myself more disposed to forget the past, and to
bury all reference to it in oblivion; the sight of your gently falling
tears, even, seems to open to me a source of happiness hitherto unknown
to me. Courage! Courage! Let us, in place of that bright and prosperous
life denied us by Providence, seek our enjoyment in the discharge of the
serious duties allotted us. Let us be mutually indulgent and forbearing
towards each other; and, should our resolution fail, let us turn to our
child, and make her the depositary of all our affections. Thus shall we
secure to ourselves an unfailing store of holy, of tranquil joys."

"Sure, 'tis some angel speaks!" cried M. d'Harville, contemplating his
wife with impassioned looks. "Oh, Clemence, you little know the pleasure
and the pain you cause me. The severest reproach you ever addressed
me--your hardest word or most merited rebuke never touched me as does
this angelic devotion, this disregard of self, this generous sacrifice
of personal enjoyment. Even despite myself, I feel hope spring up within
me. I dare hardly trust myself to believe the blessed future which
suggests itself to my imagination."

"Ah, you may safely and implicitly believe all I say, Albert! I declare
to you, by all that is sacred and solemn, that I have firmly taken the
resolution I spoke of, and that I will adhere to it in strictest word
and deed. Hereafter I may even be enabled to give you further pledges of
my truth."

"Pledges!" exclaimed M. d'Harville, more and more excited by a happiness
so wholly unlocked for. "What need have I of any pledges? Do not your
look, your tone, the heavenly expression of goodness which animates your
co