She sprung forward, and sinking at her mother's feet, buried her face in her robe.
"Mother, my injured mother, oh, do not, do not hate me!" she murmured, in a voice almost inarticulate.

"I deserve to be cast from your love, to lose your confidence for ever.

I have deceived you--I--" Sobs choked her utterance, and the grieving mother could only throw her arms around her child, and press her convulsively to her heart.

Anxiety, nearly equal to that of his wife, had been an inmate of Mr.Hamilton's bosom as the Duchess's voice reached his ear; but as he glanced on Caroline, a frown gathered on his brow.

He trembled involuntarily, for he felt assured it was imprudence, to give it the mildest term, in her conduct that called for this untimely visit, this strange return to her home.