For some time I was lost in conjecture as to the cause of this, but yesterday an idea struck me, and if it is well founded, I conjure you to avow it.

Reserve on such a point would be not only useless, but draw down treble misery on us all." I trembled violently at his exordium, and my father continued--"I confess, my son, that I have always looked forward to your marriage with our dear Elizabeth as the tie of our domestic comfort and the stay of my declining years.

You were attached to each other from your earliest infancy; you studied together, and appeared, in dispositions and tastes, entirely suited to one another.

But so blind is the experience of man that what I conceived to be the best assistants to my plan may have entirely destroyed it.

You, perhaps, regard her as your sister, without any wish that she might become your wife.