I pleaded the unerring devotion of my heart, the uprightness of my motives, and when called on for the proofs,--alas! except the blue scarf I wore in memory of another, and my absurd conduct at the villa, I had none.

From the current gossip of Lisbon, down to my own disgraceful folly, all, all was against me.
Honesty of intention, rectitude of purpose, may be, doubtless they are, admirable supports to a rightly constituted mind; but even then they must come supported by such claims to probability as make the injured man feel he has not lost the sympathy of all his fellows.

Now, I had none of these, had even my temperament, broken by sickness and harassed by unlucky conjectures, permitted my appreciating them.
I endeavored to call my wounded pride to my aid, and thought over the glance of haughty disdain she gave me as she passed on to her carriage; but even this turned against me, and a humiliating sense of my own degraded position sank deeply into my heart.

"This impression at least," thought I, "must be effaced.

I cannot permit her to believe--" "His Excellency is waiting dinner, sir," said a lackey, introducing a finely powdered head gently within the door.