I'm a fool--an old fool! Well--and how long has this been going on between you, my darling ?" Sophie's heart, which, in the passionate tumult of her recent interview with her lover, had remained so steady and unfaltering, began now to beat with such violence as to impede her utterance and visibly to shake her.

She was resolved to show herself to her father even as she was.
"I hardly can say how long, papa--I think--I think it must have been a--a long time--at least, on my side.

Oh! I have been so false--so false to myself, and so unwomanly! I have courted him, papa--_I_, papa--think of it! I've thrown myself in his way, and--and made him interested in me; and talked to him about things that--no one but his mother, or you, should have done.

Poor fellow!--I've forced myself upon him, papa.

I took advantage of his illness and helplessness, and pretended all the time I was thinking only of his spiritual welfare, and--and not of--of any thing else.