He did not know how, treasured up in tenderest
infancy, through sunny childhood, and in sweetly dawning maidenhood,
innocence and truth had formed for her a talisman by which the
qualities of others might be tested. At the first approach of Mr.
Lyon this had given instinctive warning; but his personal
attractions were so great, and her father's approving confidence of
the man so strong, that the inward monitor was unheeded. But, after
a long silence following a series of impassioned letters, to find
herself alluded to in this cold and distant way revealed a state of
feeling in the man she loved so wildly, that proved him false beyond
all question. Like one standing on a mountain-top, who suddenly
finds the ground giving way beneath his feet, she felt herself
sweeping down through a fearfully intervening space, and fell, with
scarcely a pulse of life remaining, on the rocky ground beneath. She
caught at no object in her quick descent, for none tempted her hand.
It was one swift plunge, and the shock was over.
"No, father," she said, in a calmer voice, lifting her face from his
bosom--"it is not pride, nor womanly indignation at a deep wrong.
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