elt."

There was a tone of deep feeling and earnest sincerity in his words,
which could not for a moment be mistaken. His face, too, was pale, and
full of care, and his person much thinner than it had been.

Mary saw all this at a glance--as did her mother. "Poor James," said the
latter, "you have had your own troubles, and severe ones, too, since we
saw you last."

"They are gone," he replied; "I care not, and think little about them,
now that Mary's character is vindicated. If I should never see her,
never speak to her more, the consciousness that she is the same angelic
being that I first found her to be, would sustain me under the severest
and most depressing calamities of life. And God knows," he said, "I
am likely to experience them in their worst shape; but, still, I have
courage now to bear up against them."

On approaching Mary nearer, he perceived that her eyes were suffused
with tears--and the sight deeply affected him. "My dear Mary," said he,
"is there not one word for me? Oh, believe me, if ever man felt deep
remorse I do."

She put her hand out to him, and almost at the same instant became
insensible. In a moment he placed her, by her mother's desire, on the
sofa, and rang the bell for some of the servants to attend. Indeed,
it would be difficult, if not impossible, to look upon a more touching
picture of sorrow and suffering than that pure-looking and beautiful
girl presented as she lay there insensible; her pale but exquisite
features impressed with a melancholy at once deep and tender, as was
evinced by the large tear-drops that lay upon her cheeks.

"May God grant that her heart be not broken," exclaimed her mother,
"and that she be not already beyond the reach of all that our affections
would hope and wish! Poor girl," she added, "the only portion of the
calamity that touched her to her heart was the reflection that you had
ceased to love her!"

Mrs. M'Loughlin whilst she spoke kept her eyes fixed upon her daughter's
pale but placid face; and whilst she did so, she perceived that a few
large tears fell upon it, and literally mingled with those of the poor
sufferer's which had been there before. She looked up and saw that
Harman was deeply moved.

"Even if it should be so," he exclaimed, "I shall be only justly
punished for having; dared to doubt her."

A servant having now entered, a little cold water was got, which,
on being sprinkled over her face and applied to her lips, aided in
recov