The fair of May fair - University Library

12 HEARTS AND DIAMONDS.
task of endurance will bring its own reward.
The time may come when you will learn to
wonder less that the friend of your youth was
flighty and inconsiderate of your comfort,
than that she retained sufficient fortitude to
brave the common accidents of life,—sufficient
courage to look upon yonder waves without
plunging headlong into the abyss."
*' Do not talk in this heinous manner," I
cried, accepting the embraces she offered, " and
I will bear with any thing,—will forgive every
thing. A wife and the mother of children is
unpardonable to indulge in such despond-
ency."
You will readily believe with what delight
I set foot on English ground 1 Yet with
double reason to rejoice in the termination
of my visit to Isabella and the happy prospects
of my engagement with Clendennis, I could not
suflPer my transport to become apparent during
our progress from Dover to London, for every
minute—every mile—the distress of my com-
panion increased. A stranger might have sup-
posed her returning to some oppressive task,
some bitter punishment, instead of to the arms