88 ALL IS NOT GOLD THAT GLITTERS.

wo-worn, had been unintentionally concealed
among the trees—“ God bless you, Rose !—that
prayer has done me good. Amen to every word
of it! She is quite, quite gone now—another’s
bride—the wife of a gentleman—and so best ;
the ambition which fits her for her present sta-
tion unfitted her to be my wife. I say this, and
think this—I know it! But though I do know
it, her face—that face I loved from infancy, un-
til it became a sin for me to love it longer—that
face comes between me and reason, and its
brightness destroys all that reason taught.”

Rose could not trust herself to reply. She:
longed to speak to him, but she could not; she
dared not. He continued—* Did she leave no
message, speak no word, say nothing, to be
said to me ?”’

‘‘She said,” replied her cousin, “that she
hoped you would be happy ; that you deserved
to be so”
.. ‘Deserved to be so!” he repeated bitterly ;
~**and that was the reason why she made me
‘miserable. Oh! the folly, the madness of the
man who trusts to woman’s love—to woman’s
faith! Butthe spell once broken, the charm
once dispelled, that is enough!” And yet it
was not enough, for Edward talked on, and
ae" than once was interrupted by Rose, who,

enever she could vindicate her cousin, did so
bravely and generously—not in a half-consent-
ing, frigid manner, but as a true woman does