“I am lost. All is over. A thousand demons are hissing at me. I shrink from the faces of my friends. This night I, too, will leave thee, beautiful village, scene of my destruction! Henceforth my life shall be dedicated to the society of strangers. Bravely will I play my part. I will smile when I curse. I will win to destroy.” Scarcely were these incoherent sentences finished, before Maria recalled to her mind the old Seeress at the Lucky Basin--the letter of fate, and her own solemn promise not to break its seal before the arrival of her eighteenth birth-day. “Two long years yet,” said she, musingly; “I may cease to breathe before that time; all is blighted even now. I will heed my pledge no longer.” Immediately she started for her portfolio, up stairs, in which it lay. She seized and broke it open in an instant: “_To love so young; a Lamb and a Wolf; so young; A Killing Frost; Destitution; Marriage; Crime; there is Blood! Death!_” One shriek announced that the forbidden contents were known. Maria lay senseless upon the floor! CHAPTER IV. _The Bay of Portland--Departure for Boston--First Impression of the Ocean--The Snares of a Passage--Arrival at Boston--First Impressions of it--The Journey of a Cab--An Omen of Evil--A House of Ill-Fame--The Heartlessness of Men--A Word on Destiny._ In the beautiful bay of Portland, at night--the last night of June, eighteen hundred and thirty-nine--a noble steamer swung at her moorings, pawing the water most impatiently, and spouting smoke and steam from her great nostrils. There was confusion, such as was never known before the days of invention; carriages turning over; people of all classes and ages, on shore and on board, hurrying to and fro. When bedlam was in its zenith--legs breaking, oaths in plenty--the bell rung out the chime of the inferno and away she went.