And even this chance was, in circumstances so desperate, not to be neglected.

He assumed, therefore, the countenance, the postures, and the voice of heart-broken but submissive despair; he affected a nobleness and magnanimity in his grief, which touched Evelyn to the quick, and took her by surprise.
"It is enough," said he, in sad and faltering accents; "quite enough for me to know that you cannot love me,--that I should fail in rendering you happy.

Say no more, Evelyn, say no more! Let me spare you, at least, the pain your generous nature must feel in my anguish.

I resign all pretensions to your hand; you are free!--may you be happy!" "Oh, Lord Vargrave! oh, Lumley!" said Evelyn, weeping, and moved by a thousand recollections of early years.

"If I could but prove in any other way my grateful sense of your merits, your too partial appreciation of me, my regard for my lost benefactor, then, indeed, nor till then, could I be happy.