No excuse but that of indisposition could be made, under the circumstances; and, attempting to screen himself, in his own estimation, from falsehood, he assumed, in his own thoughts, a mental indisposition, while, in the billet he dispatched, he gave the idea of bodily indisposition.

The night that followed was, perhaps, the most unhappy one the young man had ever spent.

Days passed, and he heard nothing from Edith.

He could not call to see her, for she had interdicted that.

Henceforth they must be as strangers.