ina!' cried Arwed, with a sudden presentiment, and
without awaiting Brodin's answer he led him into his private chamber.
'Now speak!' cried he with vehemence. 'I am prepared to hear all.'

'Were you a weak-nerved lady,' commenced Brodin, slowly drawing a
letter from the pocket of his traveling coat, 'it might be necessary to
preface the unpleasant intelligence of which I am the bearer with a
fitting preamble. But you are a stout young man, as well as a brave
soldier, and therefore I may venture to spare you the torment of fear
and expectation.'

'Silence!' cried Arwed, tearing the letter from his hand. 'It is her
writing!' he exclaimed, breaking the seal, and then proceeded to read:

'MY NOBLE GYLLENSTIERNA!

'The sympathy you continue to evince for the poor Georgina, blesses,
while it rends her heart. Notwithstanding the clearness with which I
explained myself, you are yet unwilling to consider our connection
dissolved. Nothing therefore remains for me but to effect a last and
eternal separation. I could have desired to spend the remainder of my
life wedded to the remembrance of my first and only love; but you have
yourself rendered this impossible. 'While I live, lives also your hope
of one day possessing me!' By this resolution of your true heart, you
have made it my duty to become dead to you for this world. Your father
wishes to place the hand of his only son in that of his love-deserving
niece, and thereby secure a continuation of the power and splendor of
your noble house. I was the only obstruction to the accomplishment of
this rational wish. I must not so continue. I could not answer to
myself for destroying the welfare of a youth, whom I would so willingly
have made happy by my faithful love, by my irresolution. To make you
free, I have bound myself. To spare you the sacrifice you were
determined to make, I have sacrificed myself. Since yesterday I have
been the wife of a worthy man, whose character I must respect, and whom
I could have loved, had I never known you. In his arms I may find, with
the peace which results from the performance of duty, that quiet
happiness which can result from a marriage, in the contracting of which
passion had no voice. May you also be truly happy! May you deserve that
happiness through obedience to your father's wishes! Believe me, Arwed,
there is something better in this life than the intoxication of
passion. I feel it in this heavy hour. Think of me sometimes, not only
w