"And now that it has been wrung from me, I know not what I do or say.

Oh, if I have spoken aught disrespectfully to you or papa just now, I meant it not, indeed I did not; but they dared to speak false tales, and I could not sit calmly to hear them," she added, shuddering.
"There was nothing in your words, my own love, to give us pain with regard to ourselves," said Mrs.Hamilton, in her most soothing tone, as again and again she pressed her quivering lips to that flushed cheek, and tried to kiss away the now streaming tears.

"Do not let that thought add to your uneasiness, my own darling." "And can you forgive me, mother ?" and Emmeline buried her face yet more closely in her mother's bosom.
"Forgive you, Emmeline! is there indeed aught in your acquaintance with Arthur Myrvin which demands my forgiveness ?" replied her mother, in a tone of anxiety and almost alarm.
"Oh, no, no! but you may believe I have encouraged these weak emotions; that I have wilfully thought on them till I have made myself thus miserable; that I have called for his love--given him encouragement: indeed, indeed I have not.

I have struggled hard to obtain forgetfulness--to think of him no more, to regain happiness, but it would not come.

I feel--I know I can never, never be again the joyous light-hearted girl that I was once; all feels so changed." "Do not say so, my own love; this it but the language of despondency, now too naturally your own; but permit it not to gain too much ascendency, dearest.