66 Never," cried Violet, "never!—how can you so try to deceive me? nothing would induce you to marry an opera-dancer!" "What can make you think so?" asked D'Arcy with surprise. Violet related the conversation she had so long ago overheard between him and Mr. Harcourt. "But still you underrate my great love for you," said D'Arcy : "it could lead me to overcome every prejudice." "It could, but it would not," repeated Violet, steadily. "You may be right," answered D'Arcy, after a moment's reflection. "But yet it is true that I have never once exaggerated the strength of my affection in all I have told you; more than that ( believe me or not, as you choose), but there have been moments when I have endured the most poignant regret-regret?—yes, I have upbraided myself; but I do love you, may God bear witness, better than all things that are,—and I would give worlds -what am I saying?-oh, my very soul,-I would give it away, if" "You hesitate; I do not know what you are going to say, but leave it unsaid. I am unhappy enough as it is-so unhappy,—I see that I can never know happiness again, "and Violet Woodville clasped her hands in deep sorrow; D'Arcy seized, and covered them with kisses,-while he almost knelt at her feet. Hummings was a great way behind, but she hastened her pace now, and her approaching steps induced both Miss Woodville and D'Arcy to try to recover their composure. Violet's determination of not meeting D'Arcy again was preying upon her mind, and she had the tenderness of her heart, as well as the deepness of its affection, to struggle with. They came to the end of her usual walk in silence, and when Violet gave D'Arcy her hand to bid him farewell, her heart was too full to speak. “I shall meet you at the Opera to-morrow; Mrs. Woodville told me she was going with you, but to-morrow morning we will talk of that: you will come here to-morrow morning?" whispered D'Arcy in an imploring voice: "ah, dearest, you will believe my very life is in your hands." Violet could make no reply. When she was alone, her tears flowed long, and how sadly! "Nos actions ne peuvent être appréciées par leur valeur intrinsèque non connue. La position qui les met au jour en décide le prix. Madame de Staal de Launay. CHAPTER VIII. A savage jealousy that sometimes savours nobly. Oh, what a host of killing doubts and fears, LORD STANMORE went to Brighton, but, finding his mother really better than he had expected, he returned to town. It was, in some measure, curiosity that prompted him to do this, mingled with more unpleasant feelings. He was certain that the impression he once hoped to have made on Violet Woodville was at an end; at the same time he gave full credit to her upright mind; but he found he had a rival, and the observations of a week were sufficient to enable him to discover who that rival was. In his jealous anger, Lord Stanmore vowed never again to see D'Arcy. He avoided him therefore, for he felt he hated him. It was a chance thing his seeing him and Violet at the rehearsal : he sometimes went to the rehearsal of an Opera, and a mistake as to the nature of this one was the reason of his coming to his box on the morning in question; and it was a moment of great pain when he there beheld Violet and his former friend. He could have declared to all the world his conviction of Violet's hypocritical conduct, although, in fact, he refused to give it his own credence. "Les amants portent quelquefois leur aveuglement jusqu'à ne pas connaître dans leurs maitresses les défauts qu'ils savent bien en faire connaître aux autres.*" On the last night of the Opera the Woodvilles took a box, or rather the manager very civilly gave them one; and Mrs. Woodville, without saying a word to Mr. Woodville or Violet, wrote a note to Lord Stanmore to inform him where they were going. Her excuse was, that he had once said something of her letting him know if they went to the Opera; and without this little arrangement on her part, Mrs. Woodville would have looked on the operabox as a most vain acquirement. A sudden resolution prompted Lord Stanmore to avail himself of this information, or rather invitation. The overture was only just ended when, to the great surprise of Violet Woodville, he entered the box and seated himself by her. She was in the back, where her mother had placed her, because she thought, in case Lord Stanmore chose it, it would be giving him such a good opportunity of proposing to her. Poor Violet was thinking only of D'Arcy and cared little where she sat. The words of civility were no sooner passed and the Opera begun, than Lord Stanmore ( his jealousy overcoming his embarrassment at seeing Violet after the letter he had lately written to her, and her reply) began to upbraid her for her preference of D'Arcy, which, he said, was undisguised. This language was not well received; and, with woman's pique at being scolded by a lover she did not love, Miss Woodville answered, that there were others, and not himself, who were the best judges of her conduct, and had the best right to interfere init. Thrown off his guard by this rebuke, Lord Stanmore exclaimed, "And is it possible you can think of being the slave of D'Arcy, who, at the very moment he is professing love to you, is thoroughly involved with another woman? I care not if you tell him I told you this nothing signifies now to me. But of him I *St. Evremond. warn you. He has no heart to give, and of you he is utterly unworthy.' Violet felt sick at heart when Lord Stanmore pronounced these words. "Of whom are you speaking?" she asked with a tremulous voice; " with whom is he, Mr. d'Arcy, involved?" "Names cannot matter to you, you will not suspect me of an untruth; what I have said I would have said in D'Arcy's presence -he could not have denied it." "But why, then, is he your friend—a person you think so ill of?” 66 The person who is perfectly fit to be my friend, may be most unfit to become yours. "I have nothing further to reply to your remarks, my Lord, " said Violet Woodville, almost passionately. For a moment her usual gentleness was overset by the anger as well as the bitterness of her feelings. "I am prepared to meet your coldness," continued Lord Stanmore; " but it shall not hinder me from telling you that I see you ready to sacrifice everything yes, everything, in time, I have no doubt-and to D'Arcy. I may be led away by the jealousy which you have so fearlessly caused me, and it may be true that I have no right to interfere; but I think the very force of my attachment to you gives me that right, as it does the power, certainly. If you knew how much I have thought of you! God forgive me! if, even while I watched over the sick bed of my mother, I remembered you as a consoling angel! With you to have fled from the world, to have seen you as my wife, to have owned it, and to have been proud of it! These have been my visions at moments when I thought your heart might be truly mine. And then D'Arcy came, and he has worked the ruin of every hope I ever formed! -Villain!" "Say not that," cried Violet; "Mr. d'Arcy has done you no harm; he has never spoken to me against you, as you have done against him this night. " "Ah! I see you cannot forgive me for the truths I have told you. How you must love that man! I wish he was dead?" said Lord Stanmore, bitterly: "I abhor him!" "You are horribly unjust, and you terrify me." "Do I? I beg your pardon but you forget that he was my |