your mother could not offer a word of for her daughter it was an in lord i will take all your reproaches meekly for i feel i deserve them yet could you know how i have suffered perhaps even those might be spared exclaimed tears pouring down her do you ind sincerely desire our the earl bending upon her a searching look ill should i be here my lord think you i would else listen to your reproaches exclaimed she her eyes flashing through her tears but i have small hope of obtaining your forgiveness � k you would truly obtain it tell me all your heart if our engagement is to be anew there must be no between us for it would indeed be mockery to say to you now i forgive that which in my wife i would not a moment i must know more of this ir with colonel are you willing to grant me this explanation asked the earl gravely paused she raised her eyes timidly to lord s ce he was standing by her side and she saw that in its expression which showed her he would admit no longer of trifling there was an indescribable something which cast its spell over her spirit whenever she conversed with him perhaps the charm lay in the simple truthful decision of his tone and manner she felt the warm blood in her cheek yet she hastened to reply for with all her faults hers was not one of those natures who dare offend and yet when fully convicted of injustice shrink from healing the wound occasioned by its rash i will give you this explanation or any other you choose to she in a low unsteady voice then answer me how far on my arrival here were you with colonel were his ad limited only to paying you marked attention or had he presumed to breathe the word love into the ear of my wife � ah that i should add also perhaps with her s brow never perhaps before had she experienced a moment so exquisitely painful colonel never spoke to me on that � that subject � and she paused never until this morning and then he owned the fact of his engagement but the error has been all on my side blame me alone my lord i acknowledge myself guilty yes continued she passionately i will not seek to it my conduct when first we met was not such i to my shame as to induce him to believe i was no longer free i what more do you require to know much � everything is it to this fact � this unexpected revelation of colonel s trifling that i am indebted for your wish for r asked the earl coldly do you deem mo so no lord even when under the though rebuke contained in your letter after that unfortunate evening i still as miss will bear me witness firmly resolved to my engagement to you i rejoined vehemently you astonish me i indeed i should have it difficult to divine such an intent and your reception likewise of the man whom you intended to make your husband was unique of its kind i replied the earl in accents slightly lord mine was a misery which then almost me of the powers of reason i feared you i i knew my conduct had been so long as the engagement between us in the highest degree try if you can consider me during that evening not responsible for my actions i saw your contempt but ah it did not exceed that i afterwards felt for my own deed v nay not contempt replied the earl in tones i lamented that you thought it necessary to in so a path and lacked sufficient to open your heart to me to whom your confidence is due believe me had you done so tho miserable anxiety of the last few days would have been spared you now tell me what was the purport of your journey to meet colonel this morning to ascertain the fact of his engagement i could not rest until i knew whether i had been deceived � with i replied and smiling bitterly and how did you reply to the confession of his attachment how by imploring him to proceed forthwith to which he promised on his honor to do to morrow i knew no other way of making to miss have i now finished my humiliating lord asked she hiding her face in her hands lord mused for some time sat motionless � silent in the bitterness of her spirit presently he seated himself by her on the couch and removed the cold trembling fingers which clasped her brow let me look in your eyes i have one more question to ask you said he gently his tones went to her heart so that she even forgot her awe she raised her tearful eyes and faintly smiled an eloquent and illustrious father of the church has said � � nothing is sweeter than tearful eyes for this is the noblest we have and the most truthful and the own and therefore we are so bowed as though we saw the spirit itself and this same d to be felt too by lord i will forgive you all the past if you will now answer me truly and deceit on this point could but upon us additional misery and have you given your to colonel forgive me if my question pains you but there must not � there shall not be reserve between us on this matter i added he quickly as she hurriedly drew her hand from his grasp how thankful did now feel that she could answer in the negative whatever delusion i might once have cherished has vanished it was a delusion and is consequently dissipated forever replied she earnestly � are you sure you read your own heart aright 