a pleasant room; without, through bayed windows, lay a wide and
fertile prospect of sunny landscape; within, it was handsomely and
luxuriously furnished. There were books in gorgeous bindings; a range of
marble pillars swept its length; stands of flowers, vases of agate and
alabaster, were scattered on every side; and after breakfast Mardyn and
Lady Alice made it their sitting-room. The morning after the scheme
suggested by Clara, they were sitting in earnest converse, Lady Alice,
looking pale and care-worn, was weeping convulsively.

"You tell me you must go," she said; "and were it a few months later, I
would forsake all and accompany you. But for the sake of my unborn infant,
you must leave me. At another time return, and you may claim me."

"Dear Alice," he whispered softly, "dear, dear Alice, why did you not know
me sooner? Why did you not love me more, and you would now have been my
own, my wife?"

"I was mad," she replied, sadly; "but I have paid the penalty of my sin
against you. The last year has been one of utter misery to me. If there is
a being on earth I loathe, it is the man I must call my husband; my hatred
to him is alone inferior to my love for you. When I think what I
sacrificed for him," she continued, passionately, "the bliss of being your
wife, resigned to unite myself to a vapid sensualist, a man who was a
spendthrift of his passions in youth, and yet asks to be loved, as if the
woman most lost to herself could feel love for him."

It was what he wished. Lady Alice had spoken with all the extravagance of
woman's exaggeration; her companion smiled; she understood its meaning.

"You despise, me," she said, "that I could marry the man of whom I speak
thus."

"No," he replied; "but perhaps you judge Sir John harshly. We must own he
has some cause for jealousy."

Despite his guarded accent, something smote on Lady Alice's ear in that
last sentence. She turned deadly pale--was she deceived? But in a moment
the sense of her utter helplessness rushed upon her. If he were false,
nothing but destruction lay before her--she desperately closed her eyes on
her danger.

"You are too generous," she replied. "If I had known what I sacrificed--"

Poor, wretched woman, what fear was in her heart as she strove to utter
words of confidence. He saw her apprehensions, and drawing her toward him,
whispered loving words, and showered burning kisses on her brow. She leant
her head on his breast, and her long hair