Mount Royal, Volume 2 of 3

with its icy stream, and chilled it into stone. All through that long summer day upon which her letter must arrive at Hillside, she had lived in nervous expectation of a telegr

t-but she expected that the struggle would be hard. Oh, how long and dismal those summer hours seemed, which she spent in her own room, trying to read, trying to comfort herself with saddest strains of classic melody, and always

that was infinitely worse than the keen agonies of the last few days. The finality of that brief letter-the willingness to surrender her-the cold indifference, as it seemed, to her future fate-was the hardest blow of all. Too surely it confirmed all those humiliating doubts which had

at should I have done if I had married him and found out afterwards how weak a hold

leigh-she spoke of him only as Mr. Hamleigh now-and had r

he is away-the diamond necklace which he gave me on my birthday-just like that one I saw on the stage-I suppose he t

all have no trouble about them. My own dear girl-how brave and good you are-how wise too. Yes, Belle, I am convinced that you have chosen wisely," said the widow, with the

And now tell me, darling, what you would like to do? We have ever so many engagements for this week and t

y with this dull aching pain at my heart? I feel as if I should n

. "Poor Leonard, who would go

o through fire and water; a kind of acrobatic performance continually b

n-Switzerland, or Italy, for instance?" suggested Mrs. Tregonell, with

y-oh, those books, those books, with their passionate record of past joys, those burning lines from Byron and Heine

ated with Mr. Hamleigh. You would be t

do that a

be so much better for y

w. The landscape may change but not the mind-I should think of-the past-just as much on Mont Blanc as on Willapark. No, dearest, let us go hom

f those placid days, the first tears she had

Caxtons' a few days ago, in which the wise tender-hearted father tells his son how small a

him then, and I believe him still les

noon, and found Mrs. Tregone

Belle?"

long country ride-

I just caught a glimpse of her in the next room. She ran away like a guilt

een a great blow, a severe trial; but now it is over

that?" asked th

be expected from a man who had led that kind

or you ever interrogate him as to his past life? Why you did not even question me, o

ord. You should not have waited to be ques

ly with his wife has been spotless up to the hour of his marriage? There is a Sturm und Drang period i

into her own hands, bravely, nobly. She has cancelled her engagement, and l

who has ruined his social and professional prospects for her sake. Do you mean to say that o

I don't see that this fact alters the case-much. Christabel could never have been

ood; and that they love us and leave us, and cleave to us and forsake us, jus

hts; yet he was angry with her, believing that she had spoiled two live