hard task of renouncing your hopes. You can never marry her."

"And why so? Do you refuse your consent?"

"Alas! no. But the Baron de Clairville--"

"He regards me with a favorable eye. I have reason to think he knows
of my attachment to his daughter, and approves of it. Even now, his
congratulations had a marked meaning, which could hardly be
ambiguous."

"But a fatal, an insurmountable barrier lies between you and the
object of your hopes."

"Do not keep me in suspense," cried the young soldier, "Explain this
mystery, I implore you."

"Have you fortitude to listen to a dreadful secret, the possession of
which has well nigh destroyed the life of your mother?"

"God will give me strength to bear any stroke," replied Henri. "Thanks
to your instruction and example, I have schooled myself to suffer,
unrepining, whatever Providence, in its infinite wisdom, sees fitting
to inflict. If I have a soul for the dangers of the field, I have
also, I think, the courage to confront those trials that pierce the
heart with keener agonies than any the steel of a foeman can inflict.
Fear not to task me beyond my strength."

"I will be as brief as possible," said the lady. "Your father, Henri,
was of noble birth and possessed of fortune. My own share of the