At midnight they bade each other farewell; Edgar having ordered a boat to wait for him at some distance from Casa Viviana, which ere Waldegrave reached had faded from his straining eyes.

Waldegrave found Sir Ralph and his family awaiting his return in the garden.

To apologize for the tardiness of his arrival, he spoke of having passed the time with Edgar, who was now on his way to Milan.

"To Milan! to night!" exclaimed Constance: "What can call him there so suddenly? He did not speak to me of going."

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"I conclude," said Waldegrave, smiling, that he did not think it would particularly interest you."

"And yet," said Constance, as if a little hurt, “methinks a kind adieu at parting ensures a kinder meeting."

"Oh! Mr. Waldegrave," cried Sir Ralph, "how thankful are my wife and I for the wonderful preservation you and my poor girl have had.

I am sorry Mr. Belmore is gone, for I wished to express my gratitude to him, as I understand from Constance, that your deliverance was chiefly owing to his exertions."

"I understood from Edgar," said Waldegrave, "that it was chiefly owing to hers."

"I am selfish enough," said Lady Vivian, who appeared to have been too much shocked by the recital," to rejoice that I knew nothing of it till it was over."

"You have quite recovered the effects of your alarm,” said Waldegrave earnestly, approaching Edith.

"I am quite well, I thank you;" returned Edith, in the same frigid accents which had benumbed her lover on their first meeting.

Waldegrave was deeply wounded; and could scarcely conceal his surprise: "Do not let me detain you longer," said he, turning to Sir Ralph; "but have the kindness to direct me towards my room;" then hastily wishing his

relations good night, he followed Sir Ralph within the Viviana walls.

The apartment prepared for him was spacious and opened on the garden.

"Here you will rest well, I hope;" said Sir Ralph, "though you must expect your slumbers to be broken by flames and smoke. I am sure I shall not sleep a wink, from thinking of the awful situation you were in with my dear daughter. Well; Heaven has wonderfully perserved you, and I hope you will never forget it. The poor Larnos I fear will not enjoy much rest; but my dear girls have promised, out of their own pocket money, to rebuild their house, and I expect that Constance will have settled every thing with them before sun-rise."

Sir Ralph having bestowed his blessing on Henry, then wished him good night.

LEFT to his own reflections, Waldegrave reviewed in succession the late distressing events, desirous of forming a calm unprejudiced decision as to what degree of hope he could now reasonably entertain.

The strange alterations of emotion and coldness which during that day had startled him in Edith's conduct, only served to bewilder him. When they met she blushed with all the outward signs of deep emotion, but her hand was given

like lead; when she thought him in danger, what meant that tone of anguish with which she had cried, "Henry, Henry! save him!'

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Then that calmness in the moment of impending death had nothing like guilt and treachery in it. The tone too in which she uttered, "May God forgive us," was that of confiding love. Would she have taken his hand so affectionately if she had deliberately wronged him as he had once believed?

"Oh! Edgar, you are right," thought he, ❝and though the unkindness of her manner tonight chilled my heart's blood, there is something beyond all this which I will know. To her only will I speak of this, and that before tomorrow's sun go down."

It was late when Waldegrave ceased to wan

der and down his room.

up

All had long been

still within and without; yet so disturbed was his

mind that sleep refused to visit his unquiet couch.

The moon had risen in her beauty, and the