is unworthy of your love. That coward spoke the truth. He is there at
this moment."

"Oh, papa! papa! let me die! The world is too wicked for me. Let me
die!"

"Die for an unworthy object? For shame! Go to your own room, my girl,
and pray to your God to help you, since your mother has left us. Oh,
how I miss her now! Go and pray, and let no one else know what we
suffer. Be your father's daughter. Fight and pray."

Poor Bella had no longer to complain that she was not commanded. She
kissed him, and burst into a great passion of weeping; but he led her
to the door, and she tottered to her own room, a blighted girl.

The sight of her was harrowing. Under its influence the admiral dashed
off a letter to Sir Charles, calling him a villain, and inviting him to
go to France and let an indignant father write scoundrel on his
carcass.

But when he had written this his good sense and dignity prevailed over
his fury; he burned the letter, and wrote another. This he sent by hand
to Sir Charles's house, and ordered his servants--but that the reader
knows.

Sir Charles found the admiral's letter in his letter-rack. It ran thus:



"SIR--We have learned your connection with a lady named Somerset, and I