been right in your fears," she said, sinking into a chair.

"Alas!"

"Speak: let me know all."

"Your father has come to me, and offered me your hand, Henrietta,
provided I can obtain your consent to his marriage with Miss Brandon.
Now, listen to me; and then you can decide."

Faithful to his promise, he thereupon told her every thing he had
learned from Maxime and the count, suppressing only those details which
would have made the poor girl blush, and also that terrible charge which
he was unwilling to believe.

When he had ended, Henrietta said warmly,--

"What! I should allow my father to marry such a creature? I should sit
still and smile when such dishonor and such ruin are coming to a house
over which my mother has presided! No; far be it from me ever to be so
selfish! I shall oppose Miss Brandon's plans with all my strength and
all my energy."

"She may triumph, after all."

"She shall not triumph over my resistance and my contempt. Never--do you
hear me, Daniel?--never will I bow down before her. Never shall my hand
touch hers. And, if my father persists, I shall ask him, the day before
his wedding, to allow me to bury myself in a convent."

"He will not let you go."

"Then I shall shut myself up in my room, and never leave it again. I do
not think they will drag me out by force."

There was no mistaking it; she spoke with an earnestness and a
determination which nothing could shake or break. And yet the very
saddest presentiments oppressed Daniel's heart. He said,--

"But Miss Brandon will certainly not come alone to this house."

"Whom will she bring with her?"

"Her relatives, M. Thomas Elgin and Mrs. Brian. Oh Henrietta, dearest
Henrietta! to think that you should be exposed to the spite and the
persecution of these wretches!"

She raised her head proudly, and replied,--

"I am not afraid of them." Then she added in a gentler tone,--

"Besides, won't you always be near me, to advise me, and to protect me
in case of danger?"

"I? Don't you think they will try to part us soon enough?"

"No, Daniel, I know very well that the house will no longer be open to
you."

"Well?"

The poor girl blushed up to the roots of her hair, and, turning her.
eyes away from him to avoid his looks, she said,--

"Since they force us to do so, I must needs do a thing a girl, properly
speaking, ought not to do. We will meet secretly. I shall have to stoop
to win over one of my waiting-women, who may be di