“If I may venture, claiming no other right of a husband, to make a request, it is that this subject may never, in any way, directly or indirectly, after this fatal day, be mentioned between us. With regard to your own parents, and to my father, your own good sense and delicacy will, I dare say, dictate to you what conduct to pursue. But if you cannot agree to these, I confess humiliating terms—if you desire an immediate separation, you have but to name your wishes. I will tell all to the world, bear all the blame, and agree to any arrangement which you and your father may choose to dictate. “Whatever you have to say, write immediately, and put your letter into the adjoining room. In a short time all will be at rest in the house. I will then myself go for it. If possible, every thing must be fully settled and understood between us before we meet to-morrow morning. “FITZHENRY.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER III. My husband! no not mine—but we were wedded; This ring was here in hallowed nuptial placed; A priest did bless it. ELLEN. ALL those who have had trials in this world—and who has not?—must know that there are moments in our life during which we seem to live centuries! and that a few hours sometimes are sufficient to rouse, influence, and form a character for ever. So was it with poor Emmeline! She who had never known a sorrow—she who had looked to her future life as to one scene of bright enjoyment, on a sudden saw the picture changed, and beheld nothing but trials, disappointment, mortification, and sorrow. She had at once to decide, and on one of the most important steps probably in her life, without a single friend to counsel and uphold her: and he, who should have been that friend, that support, was the one against whom she had to arm herself, and exert energies of character, of which she did not even know herself to be possessed. What Fitzhenry had said was true—she did not love him; that is to say, was not _in love_ with him; but she had entertained a sort of girlish affection for the companion of her early youth, and it was impossible not to admire the handsome, accomplished, informed being he now was. Her innocent mind adding to these prepossessions, the light in which she had ever been taught to consider him, of her future husband, gave to her feelings something sacred and tender, so that she had looked to her union with him with stronger anticipations of happiness, than those which mere obedience to her father’s wishes could have given.