if summoning the last spark of courage in her timid, fearful soul
and said, "Yes, it is a dreadful alternative, but I am driven to it.
If I obey my father, and go to Europe, I know I shall not return for
many years, if ever. If I am to be separated from my father, it
shall not be by that woman's scheming. She has devised this plan to
send me from my home, and she shall be disappointed. I am assured
that Emile loves me, yet I should never have married him had I not
been forced to do so-simply because he is not a Jew. But as it is, I
take the step deliberately, firmly resolved to abide the
consequences, be they good or evil. Yes, I am resolved to take this
first step in disobedience to my father's wishes. I cannot help it.
It has caused me terrible suffering to reach this decision, but
circumstances press me to it. Now, it is irrevocable. God forgive
me, if I cause my father sorrow! He knows how I love and serve him,
and Heaven knows how cruelly I have been dealt with. But time is
passing. I must write a last, fond letter to my dear Lizzie; tell
her of this final, desperate step in my life, and beg that her love,
so long tried, may follow me still through the untried life that
lies before me, be it a life of sunshine or of shadow.

"Oh! the thought is dreadful. Let me see. Now the hour is eleven.
Emile will come at twelve. I must hasten;" and rising from her
recumbent posture, Leah replaced the watch within her bosom, and
seating herself at the escritoire, wrote a last, loving letter to
the friend of her school-days. This she dropped into her pocket,
that she might post it at the lodge. Then she wrote, with trembling
hand and faltering heart, a farewell message to her beloved father;
and she was done. In a small portmanteau she had carefully packed
the few things requisite for her clandestine journey. The
well-filled trunks were safely locked, and the keys hanging idly