Scarcely a week intervened before their departure, when they were one afternoon startled by the appearance of Grahame, whose countenance bore the pallid hue of death, and every action denoted the most fearful agitation.

Mr.and Mrs.Hamilton, Caroline and St.
Eval, were alone present, and they gazed on him in unfeigned alarm.
"Hamilton, I start for Brussels to-night," was his salutation, as he entered.
"Brussels!" repeated Mr.Hamilton.

"Grahame, you are beside yourself.
What affairs can call you to Brussels so suddenly ?" "Affairs--business; aye, of such weight, I cannot rest till they are attended to.

Hamilton, you are astonished; you think me mad; oh, would to God I were!" and striking his forehead with his clenched hand, he paced the room in agony.
Ere his friend could approach or address him, he suddenly paused before Caroline, who was watching him in alarm and commiseration, and grasping her arm, with a pressure that pained her, he said, in a voice which blanched her cheek with horror-- "Hamilton, look on this girl, and, as you love me, answer me.

Could you be a Roman father, did you see her dishonoured,--the victim, the wilful victim of a base, a treacherous, miserable villain ?--say, could you wash away the blackening stain with blood--with her blood--or his, or both?
Speak to me--counsel me.