forgetfulness, though even in the grave; to laugh at his boyish dreams,--
to sully her memory in the arms of harlots! Oh, if the dead can suffer,
let him live, that she may feel beyond the grave his inconstancy and his
fall. Methinks that that thought will comfort me if Vincent be no more,
and I stand childless in the world!"

"It is so settled, then," said Varney, ever ready to clinch the business
that promised gold, and relieve his apprehensions of the detection of his
fraud. "And now to your noiseless hands, as soon as may be, I consign
the girl; she has lived long enough!"




CHAPTER XI.

LOVE AND INNOCENCE.

During this conference between these execrable and ravening birds of
night and prey, Helen and her boy-lover were thus conversing in the
garden; while the autumn sun--for it was in the second week of October--
broke pleasantly through the yellowing leaves of the tranquil shrubs, and
the flowers, which should have died with the gone summer, still fresh by
tender care, despite the lateness of the season, smiled gratefully as
their light footsteps passed.

"Yes, Helen," said Percival,--"yes, you will love my mother, for she is
one of those people who seem to attract love, as if it were a property
belonging to them. Even my dog Beau (you know how fond Beau is of me!)
always nestles at her feet when we are at home. I own she has pride, but