"I am so glad to find you so much better!" "I am glad to see you back, Lucinda," said Colonel Preston; but he spoke coldly, and without the slightest affectation of sentimental joy.

"I have passed through a good deal since you left me." "And so have I!" exclaimed his wife.

"Oh, how my heart has been rent with anxiety, as I thought of you lying sick, while duty kept me from your side." "Is Godfrey well ?" asked her husband, taking no notice of her last speech.
"Yes, poor boy! He sends his love, and is so anxious to see you." "Let him come next Friday afternoon," said the sick man, who doubted this statement, yet wanted to believe it true.
"He shall.

I will write to him at once." So Mrs.Preston resumed her place in the house; but from that time there was a something she could not understand in her husband's manner.

He was graver than formerly, and sometimes she saw him watching her intently, and, after a little, turn away, with a sigh.
He had found her out in all her intense selfishness and want of feeling, and he could never again regard her as formerly, even though she tried hard at times, by a show of affection, to cover up her heartless neglect..