The old man's answer was to pass his hand caressingly over the beautiful head that rested on the arm of his chair; and his niece continued.
"My spirits are overcast with a sadness which I have not hitherto known, and inexplicable too. Did I believe in omens, I should say that my depression was ominous."
"It is the idea of departure—but you always wished to visit London."
"And wish it still: but I knew not, up to the hour of parting, how much it would cost me to sever myself from my kind, my only friend."
"You have your husband, Henrietta;" but the expression which accompanied the sentence was half sarcastic, half distrustful.
A still deeper shade of doubt passed across the high and finely cast features of the youthful female.
"You have, from my cradle, impressed upon me the folly of love: and so far as my knowledge goes, it goes with you. All the affairs of the heart that I have witnessed, have excited but my wonder or contempt; nor could I ever understand what people see so charming in each other. I could no more pass hours away, like dear Ethel,
