business of my life to discover."

"For what good?"

"For the deadliest harm to him," Gilbert answered moodily. "If ever he
and I meet, I will have some payment for my broken life; some
compensation for my ruined hopes. We two should not meet and part
lightly, rely upon it."

"You can make no excuse for his love, that fatal irresistible passion,
which outweighs truth and honour when they are set in the opposite scale.
I did not think you could be so hard, Gilbert; I thought you would have
more mercy on the man who wronged you."

"I could pardon any injury but this. I will never forgive this."

John Saltram shrugged his shoulders with a deprecating air.

"It is a mistake, my dear fellow," he said. "Life is not long enough for
these strong passions. There is nothing in the world worth the price
these bitter hatreds and stormy angers cost us. You have thrown away a
great deal of deep feeling on a lady, whose misfortune it was not to be
able to return your affection as she might have done--as you most fully
deserved at her hands. Why waste any further emotion in regrets that we
as useless as they are foolish?"

"You may as well ask me why I exist," Gilbert answered quietly. "Regret
for all I have lost is a part of my life."

After this there was no more to be said, and Mr. Saltram went on to speak