on the face of that World which the woman I had just quitted personified
and concentred; she had learned the cause from the bloodless lips of Miss
Brabazon.

"My child! my poor child!" murmured the mother. "And she so
guileless,--so sensitive! Could she know what is said, it would kill her.
She would never marry you, Allen,--she would never bring shame to you!"

"She never need learn the barbarous calumny. Give her to me, and at once;
patients, fortune, fame, are not found only at L----. Give her to me at
once. But let me name a condition: I have a patrimonial independence, I
have amassed large savings, I have my profession and my repute. I cannot
touch her fortune--I cannot,--never can! Take it while you live; when you
die, leave it to accumulate for her children, if children she have; not
to me; not to her--unless I am dead or ruined!"

"Oh, Allen, what a heart! what a heart! No, not heart, Allen,--that bird
in its cage has a heart: soul--what a soul!"




CHAPTER LIX.


How innocent was Lilian's virgin blush when I knelt to her, and prayed
that she would forestall the date that had been fixed for our union, and
be my bride before the breath of the autumn had withered the pomp of
thewoodland and silenced the song of the birds! Meanwhile, I was so
fearfully anxious that she should risk no danger of hearing, even of