your silent
glance does not force me to grovel in the earth with shame! Here, in the
presence of your noble images, I am alone with my soul, with my
conscience;--hero, no mortification can touch the being who, as
gentleman, Christian, brother, and father, has sacrificed himself to
duty!"

His voice ceased; and for a few moments he stood still in the midnight
silence, looking at the antique portraits as the last echoes died away
in the lofty apartment, with his arms stretched toward the pictures as
if invoking the beings they represented.

"Poor, senseless creature," continued he, after a while, clasping his
hands and lifting them anew to heaven, "thy soul seeks deliverance in
dreams! Yes; it is, perhaps, a dream, an illusion! Yet, thanks, thanks
to the Almighty that allows even a dream to fortify me with courage and
endurance! Enough: reality once more stares me in the face; and yet I
defy the mocking spectre which points to ruin and misery!"

"And then to-morrow,--to-morrow!" continued he; "wilt thou not tremble
beneath the glance of those who seek the secret of thy life? Yes; study
well thy part; have ready thy mask; go on bravely with thy cowardly
farce! And now begone; thy nightly task is done;--beg, beg from sleep
the oblivion of what thou art and of thy threatening future! _Sleep!_ I
tremble at the very thought of it! Father in heaven, have mercy on us!"

CHAPTER III.

At daybreak next morning everybody was busy at Grinselhof. John's wife
and her serving-maid scoured the corridor and staircase; the farmer
cleaned his stable; his son weeded the grass from the garden-walks. Very
early in the day Lenora set matters in order in the dining-room and
arranged with artistic taste all the pretty things she could find on the
mantel-piece and tables. There was a degree of life and activity about
Grinselhof that had not been seen in that solitude for many a year, and
everybody went to work with alacrity, as if anxious to dispel the gloom
that hung so long over the lonely dwelling. In the midst of the
industrious crowd Monsieur De Vlierbeck might be seen moving about with
words of encouragement and expressions of satisfaction; nor did he
manifest the slightest symptom of the anxiety that was secretly gnawing
his heart. A pleasant smile flattered his humble dependants, as he gave
them to understand that their labors would be greatly honored by the
approval of his expected guests.

The farmer and his spouse had ne