the count, averting his eyes slightly from Randal's quiet, watchful gaze,
"when I add, that I forgave him for enjoying a heritage that, but for
him, had been mine."

"Ah, you were next heir?"

"And it is a hard trial to be very near a great fortune, and yet just to
miss it."

"True," cried Randal, almost impetuously. The count now raised his eyes,
and again the two men looked into each other's souls.

"Harder still, perhaps," resumed the count, after a short pause,--"harder
still might it have been to some men to forgive the rival as well as the
heir."

"Rival! how?"

"A lady, who had been destined by her parents to myself, though we had
never, I own, been formally betrothed, became the wife of my kinsman."

"Did he know of your pretensions?"

"I do him the justice to say he did not. He saw and fell in love with
the young lady I speak of. Her parents were dazzled. Her father sent
for me. He apologized, he explained; he set before me, mildly enough,
certain youthful imprudences or errors of my own, as an excuse for his
change of mind; and he asked me not only to resign all hope of his
daughter, but to conceal from her new suitor that I had ever ventured to
hope."