assist you with your work and provide you with all things necessary."

This seemed to me a harsh, even a cruel punishment for so trivial an
offense, or accident, rather; but she was not perhaps of the same mind,
for she kissed his hand, as if in gratitude for his leniency.

"Tell me, child," he said, putting his hand on her head, and regarding
her with misty eyes, "who shall attend you in your seclusion?"

"Edra," she murmured; and the other, coming forward, took her by the
hand and led her away.

I gazed eagerly after her as she retired, hungering for one look from
her dear eyes before that long separation; but they were filled with
tears and bent on the floor, and in a moment she was gone from sight.

The succeeding days were to me dreary beyond description. For the first
time I became fully conscious of the strength of a passion which had now
become a consuming fire in my breast, and could only end in utter
misery--perhaps in destruction--or else in a degree of happiness no
mortal had ever tasted before. I went about listlessly, like one on whom
some heavy calamity has fallen: all interest in my work was lost; my
food seemed tasteless; study and conversation had become a weariness;
even in those divine concerts, which fitly brought each tranquil day to
its close, there was no charm now, since Yoletta's voice, which love had
taught my dull ear to distinguish no longer had any part in it. I was
not allowed to enter the Mother's Room of an evening now, and the
exclusion extended also to the others, Edra only excepted; for at this
hour, when it was customary for the family to gather in the music-room,
Yoletta was taken from her lonely chamber to be with her mother. This