At her age--at any age--is such a tie as this to be rudely broken at the mere bidding of circumstances?
No! She will suffer anything, risk anything, forgive anything, rather than own, even to herself, that she has been deceived in you.

There is more than her happiness at stake; there is pride, a noble pride, in such love as hers, which will ignore the plainest discovery and deny the most unanswerable truth.

I am firmly convinced--from my own knowledge of her character, and from what I have observed in her to-day--that she will find some excuse for refusing to hear your confession.

And more than that, I believe (if the exertion of her influence can do it) that she will leave no means untried of preventing you from acknowledging your true position here to any living creature.

I take a serious responsibility on myself in telling you this--and I don't shrink from it.