Gradually our horses and servants disappeared; the paths that led to our neighbors soon became grass-grown; and we declined all social invitations, so as to avoid the necessity of returning the compliment.

A rumor about us began to spread through the village and among the noble families that had formerly been on terms of intimacy with us; and scandal declared that _avarice_ had driven us to a life of meanness and isolation! We joyously accepted the imputation, and even the coldness with which our holiday friends accompanied it; it was a veil with which society thought proper to cover us, and beneath its folds our poverty was safe from scrutiny.
"But I am approaching scenes, my child, the recollection of which almost unnerves me.

My story has reached the most painful moment of my life, and I beseech you to hear me calmly.
"Your poor mother wasted away to a skeleton; her sunken-eyes were hardly visible in their deep sockets; a livid pallor suffused her cheeks.

As I saw her fading,--fading,--the wife whom I had loved more than life,--as I gazed on those death-struck features and saw the fatal evidences each day clearer and clearer,--I became nearly mad with despair and grief." Lenora shuddered with emotion as her breast heaved convulsively under the sobs she strove to repress.

Her father stopped a moment, almost overcome by the recital; but, rallying his courage quickly, he forced himself to go on with his sad recollections:-- "Poor mother! she did nothing but weep! Every time she looked at her child--her dear little Lenora--tears filled her eyes.