"Penelope, it soothes me to talk of the past, for my sorrow has been confined too painfully to my own bosom. Let me tell Chrystal how useless were the aids of grandeur and gratified ambition to give comfort to a breaking heart. It may make her less careful of the follies of worldly gifts--less ambitious than I was. Yet, I loved him; I loved Ennismore, once; but what heart will love through coldness--through indifference, and separation? Who can love, when kindly affections are thrown aside, or made the sport of unfeeling ridicule? Chrystal, marry not, unless you are sure you are valued--unless you love a man for the goodness of his nature, and not for his earthly possessions." Christobelle bent forward, and pressed her lips upon Julia's hand, as it lay upon her own. She could not speak. "If they tell you, Chrystal, that life has no blessings beyond high station and the luxuries of wealth, look at me, and believe them not. It is false to say so. My father told me it was false, and I did not heed him. I smiled at his anxiety, and thought him prejudiced. Where is my father?--Where is my dear father? Is he alive, Penelope? Oh, do not say that good father is gone, who mourned so, after my hapless choice was made--who looked so calm and so sad at Bedinfield!" Christobelle assured her every member of the family still lived, and then she repeated to her the message which her father had charged her to deliver when Julia's returning reason could bear its import. It was a message of kindness: they were words of indulgent goodness, for none other ever passed _his_ lips. "Tell my poor Julia," he said, "that her father's eyes long to behold her, and his arms are open to embrace her, when she can bear the meeting. There is a home at Wetheral, to shelter her; and his fond affections are anxious to make her forget she ever left its protection." Julia wept abundantly. "Yes, we resist advice, and defy the truths which tell us how weak and insufficient we are to reason upon things which concern our peace hereafter. I believed my mother-in-law was all truth--all sincerity. I felt for Lord Ennismore's ailments. I did not know how deeply those ailments affect the temper and weaken the mind. I was ambitious--I was resolved to soar: and see, Chrystal, how I have fallen! Thank Heaven, I am guiltless!--thank Heaven, I can return to my father's house, untainted by crime! I shall never more be happy, but I can demand respect, and bow submissively to a just punishment for my sordid views. I fancied I could command all, as the wife of Ennismore! but I came to Penelope's house--a poor, solitary, wretched wife--a fugitive from Bedinfield--flying, above all, from myself. Oh, my friend, my dear Penelope, save me from myself!"