t you loved me, and since that day my hope of
future happiness has rested on obtaining you, for to gain you would be
life to me. Now, I think no more; I say only that fortune has turned
against me--I had thought to gain heaven, and now I have lost it. It is
an every-day occurrence for a gambler to lose not only what he possesses
but also what he has not." Morrel pronounced these words with perfect
calmness; Valentine looked at him a moment with her large, scrutinizing
eyes, endeavoring not to let Morrel discover the grief which struggled
in her heart. "But, in a word, what are you going to do?" asked she.

"I am going to have the honor of taking my leave of you, mademoiselle,
solemnly assuring you that I wish your life may be so calm, so happy,
and so fully occupied, that there may be no place for me even in your
memory."

"Oh!" murmured Valentine.

"Adieu, Valentine, adieu!" said Morrel, bowing.

"Where are you going?" cried the young girl, extending her hand through
the opening, and seizing Maximilian by his coat, for she understood from
her own agitated feelings that her lover's calmness could not be real;
"where are you going?"

"I am going, that I may not bring fresh trouble into your family: and to
set an example which every honest and devoted man, situated as I am, may
follow."

"Before you leave me, tell me what you are going to do, Maximilian." The
young man smiled sorrowfully. "Speak, speak!" said Valentine; "I entreat
you."

"Has your resolution changed, Valentine?"

"It cannot change, unhappy man; you know it must not!" cried the young
girl. "Then adieu, Valentine!" Valentine shook the gate with a strength
of which she could not have been supposed to be possessed, as Morrel was
going away, and passing both her hands through the opening, she clasped
and wrung them. "I must know what you mean to do!" said she. "Where are
you going?"

"Oh, fear not," said Maximilian, stopping at a short distance, "I do not
intend to render another man responsible for the rigorous fate reserved
for me. Another might threaten to seek M. Franz, to provoke him, and to
fight with him; all that would be folly. What has M. Franz to do with
it? He saw me this morning for the first time, and has already forgotten
he has seen me. He did not even know I existed when it was arranged by
your two families that you should be united. I have no enmity against M.
Franz, and promise you the punishment shall not fall on him."

"On who