"Who was that fearful person?" "Alas! the revered friend whose long illness Lady Tinemouth has sometimes mentioned in your presence." Lady Sara shuddered again, but with a rush of tears, while she added imploringly, "Then, whither are you going to take me?" "You shall again, dear Lady Sara," replied he, "return to guiltless and peaceful home." "I cannot meet my husband," cried she, wringing her hands; "he will see all my premeditated guilt in my countenance. O! Constantine, have pity on me! Miserable creature that I am! It is horrible to live without you! It is dreadful to live with him! Take me not home, I entreat you!" The count took her clasped hands in his, saying, "Reflect for a moment. Lady Tinemouth's eulogiums on our first acquaintance taught me to honor you. I believe that when you distinguished me with any portion of your regard, it was in consequence of virtues which you thought I possessed." "Indeed, you do me justice!" cried she, with renewed energy. He continued, feeling that he must be stern in words as well as in purpose if he would really rescue her from herself. "Think, then, should I yield to the influence of your beauty, and sink your respected name to a level with those"--and he pointed to a group of wretched women assembled at the corner of Pall-Mall. "Think, where would be the price of your innocence? I being no longer worthy of your esteem, you would hate yourself; and we should continue together, two guilty creatures, abhorring each other, and justly despised by a virtuous world." Lady Sara sat as one dumb, and did not inarticulate any sound--except the groan of horror which had shot through her when she had glanced at those women--until the coach stopped in James's Place. "Go in with me," were all the words she could utter, while, pulling her veil over her face, she gave him her hand to assist her down the steps. "Is Captain Ross arrived?" asked Thaddeus of a servant, who, to his great joy, replied in the negative. During the drive, he had alarmed himself by anticipating the disagreeable suspicions which might rise in the mind of the husband should he see his wife in her present strange and distracted state. When Thaddeus seated Lady Sara in her drawing room, he offered to take a respectful leave; but she laid one hand on his arm, whilst with the other she covered her convulsed features, and said, "Constantine, before you go, before we part perhaps eternally, O! tell me that you do not, even now, hate me!--that you do not hate me!" repeated she, in a firmer tone; "I know too well how deeply I am despised." "Cease, ah, cease these vehement self-reproaches!" returned he, tenderly replacing her on the sofa. "Shame does not depend on possessing passions, but in yielding to them. You have conquered yours, dear Lady Sara; and in future I must respect and love you like a sister of my heart."