of duty or prudence, and one day proved this by advising me at once to
return to London--my father was in Holland, she said, and if Rashleigh
was allowed to manage his affairs long, he would be ruined. He would use
my father's revenues as a means of putting in motion his own ambitious
schemes.

I seized her hand and pressed it to my lips--the world could never
compensate for what I left behind me, if I left the Hall.

"This is folly! This is madness!" she cried, and my eyes, following the
direction of hers, I saw the tapestry shake, which covered the door of
the secret passage to Rashleigh's apartment. Prudence, and the necessity
of suppressing my passion and obeying Diana's reiterated command of
"Leave me! leave me!" came in time to prevent any rash action. I left
the apartment in a chaos of thoughts. Above all I was perplexed by the
manner in which Miss Vernon had received my tender of affection, and the
glance of fear rather than surprise with which she had watched the
motion of the tapestry. I resolved to clear up the mystery, and that
evening, at a time when I usually did not visit the library, I,
hesitating a moment with my hand on the latch, heard a suppressed
footstep within, opened the door, and found Miss Vernon alone.

I had determined to seek a complete explanation, but found she refused
it with indignant defiance, and avowed to my face the preference for a
rival. And yet, when I was about to leave her for ever, it cost her but
a change of look and tone to lead me back, her willing subject on her
own hard terms, agreeing that we could be nothing to each other but
friends now or henceforward. She then gave me a letter which she said
might never have reached my hands if it had not fallen into hers. It was
from my father's partner, Mr. Tresham, to tell me that Rashleigh had