Deprived by death of the mother who might have taught her to restrain
and regulate her ardent feelings, they acquired by neglect additional
strength, and eventually concentrated into a passion deep and lasting
as her existence. As years passed on, so did her love increase; she
regarded Albert as the perfection of human excellence, and worshipped
him with all the full devotedness of her warm heart. It was not
so with Albert; he thought of his fair cousin with pride--with
tenderness; but it was only the calm affection of a brother: other
feelings than those of love possessed him--he languished for fame, for
honourable distinction among his fellow men, and at length left his
peaceful home, and the sweet companion of his youth, to fight the
battles of his country. His career was glorious; and after an absence
of three years, he was recalled by the death of his father. Isabel
welcomed him with rapturous joy; he embraced her with a brother's
fondness, and gazed with delight on her improved beauty. He suspected
not that she loved him with more than a sisterly affection, and
thought not of the wound he was about to inflict on this tender,
enthusiastic being. He told her of his attachment to a fair girl,
who had consented to become his bride at the expiration of the term
of mourning for his father. She heard him with death-like silence,
checked the groan that was bursting from her agonized heart, and
strove to assume a look of cheerfulness. Retired to the solitude
of her apartment, she wept in bitter anguish--her young soul was
blighted; she had nothing left to live for; hope, happiness, and
love were at an end; for love would now be guilt. At length she grew
calm, but it was the fearful calmness of despair; she complained
not--reproached not; for she felt that she had been self-deceived; she
could not, however, conceal the devastation which sorrow was making in
her graceful form. Albert beheld her with concern, but ascribed the
alteration to her grief for his father's loss, for Isabel had tenderly