'I have already referred to an entanglement--it was simply that, though no promise had been given, I deemed myself all but engaged to Blanche Gordon, who, some months before this time had enchanted and spell-bound me. She was, indeed, a beautiful girl, and is a beautiful woman now, tall, slender, and graceful--a finished creature in every way, and wielding every natural and acquired accomplishment with consummate and yet unapparent art. 'She had given me every reason to believe that the passion with which she had inspired me was reciprocated, and we had only parted with the mutual hope, apparently, of meeting again; hence there seemed an absolute necessity for breaking off my philandering on the river. It is said that a man cannot love two women at once; and yet my heart ached for Annabelle and the grief that was before her. 'By some sophistry I nursed myself into the idea that I, rather than she, was the victim of circumstances; and as I went to the trysting-place for the last time I muttered: '"'Handsome, rich, and a Lancer,'" she said. "Yes--yes, by Jove! she is not so deuced artless, after all; and the very proposal she made to me was in itself unwomanly." '_Unwomanly_! I actually had the cruelty to tell her so; and never shall I forget the look of incredulity, grief, dismay, and horror that appeared by turns, and then all blended together, in her beautiful face when I did so; and, already repenting what I had said so capriciously, I would have retracted my words if it were possible to do so. 'The phrase went through her loving heart like a bolt of ice, though she seemed to hear it indistinctly. '"Oh, Leslie!" she gasped, in an accent of desolation such as human lips can utter but once in a lifetime, while her hands became cold and her face grew livid. She bit her lips till the blood came, and clasped her white hands until a ring I had given her marked her tender fingers; and then remembering it, she tore it off, cast it at my feet, and after giving me one long glance of anguish and reproval, tottered away home; and I, my heart burning with shame, shot my shallop out into the stream, and pulled away from the spot like a madman! '"She is young, poor girl, and will get over it," thought I; while to nerve myself I conjured up the presence of Blanche Gordon in all her imperial beauty, while, ingrate that I was! she that I had just left possessed and showed all the qualities that win love--and that love had, upon a mere pretence, been coldly and abruptly thrust back upon her heart. 'The black "morrow" of her prophetic song had come indeed, and an idol had been robbed of its truth. 'She was helpless to avenge herself, suffering and so beautiful; so I prayed that God might strengthen her, until some other love consoled her for the loss of mine: and even the thought of that stung me. '"Yes, yes," thought I, "if so ready to love me, she will with equal facility learn to love another."