Yes! this was no fancy, she had been the victim of infatuation, of excitement; but clearer and clearer dawned the truth.

She was sacrificing herself to one whom she did not love, whom she had never loved, with whom her life would be a dreary waste; and for this was she about to break the ties of nature, fly from her parents, perhaps draw down upon her head their curse, or, what she now felt would be worse, much worse, wring that mother's heart with anguish, whose conduct, now that reason had resumed her throne, she was convinced had been ever guided by the dictates of affection.

She recalled with vivid clearness her every interview with Annie, and she saw with bitter self-reproach her own blindness and folly, in thus sacrificing her own judgment to false reasoning, in withdrawing her confidence and affection from the mother who had never once deceived her, to bestow them on one who had played upon her foolish weakness, heightened her scarcely-dawning fancy till it became infatuation, and finally recommended that plan of conduct from which Caroline's whole soul revolted.

Why had she done this?
Caroline felt, to bring down shame upon her head and suffering on her mother.

Her parents' conduct changed towards her--oh! had not hers changed to them?
had she not acted from the first of Annie's arrival in London as if under the influence of some spell?
and now that it was rudely broken, recollections of the past mingled with and heightened her present sufferings.