frivolous nature is but a gossamer thread! Fine gentlemen and fine
ladies, their loves and their marriages--

"'May flourish and may fade;
A breath can make them, as a breath has made.'

"Never believe that a heart long accustomed to beat only in good society
can be broken,--it is rarely ever touched!"

Evelyn listened attentively, and seemed struck. She sighed, and said in
a very low voice, as to herself, "It is true--how could I think
otherwise?"

For the next few days Evelyn was unwell, and did not quit her room.
Maltravers was in despair. The flowers, the books, the music he sent;
his anxious inquiries, his earnest and respectful notes, touched with
that ineffable charm which Heart and Intellect breathe into the most
trifling coinage from their mint,--all affected Evelyn sensibly. Perhaps
she contrasted them with Legard's indifference and apparent caprice;
perhaps in that contrast Maltravers gained more than by all his brilliant
qualities. Meanwhile, without visit, without message, without
farewell,--unconscious, it is true, of Evelyn's illness,--Legard departed
for Vienna.



CHAPTER III.

A PLEASING land . . .
Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye,