"A few months after our ill-fated marriage, Mr. Holly's sister died, leaving the whole of her fortune to your mother in secret trust, as I not two months since discovered, for her infant daughter. But avarice is your mother's motto, as well as Sir Horace's; to that she yielded, and, smothering every softer feeling, abandoned the child to the care of its father; and, appropriating the money to her own use, sent a peasant with the infant Louise to Mallet at Rennes!" Sir Henry was here interrupted by Louise, who, bursting into tears, said--"Ah the dreaded secret is explained! Oh, Harland, will you not now despise the woman to whom you are united? The conduct of her parents must stamp indelible shame on her name!" "The virtues of Louise," said Harland tenderly, "are all her own, nor can the actions of her parents lessen her for a moment in my regard." Sir Henry paused a moment, till the violence of her emotion had subsided; then continued: "The discovery of these circumstances by the officiousness of the woman she employed to transport the child, considerably degraded your mother, in my opinion: had she, indeed, been as amiable as she endeavoured to appear in the eye of the world, she might in time have obliterated Eliza from my heart; but the pity I had felt for her, as a victim, like myself, of parental tyranny, was then turned to contempt and disgust: she perceived the change, and soon learned the cause, and from that time marked me as the object of her vengeance. "Already a favourite with Sir Horace, she easily insinuated herself into his affections, by continual coincidence with his opinion, and the appearance of personal attachment; and the ascendancy once gained, bent him entirely to her will. His anger to Ellenor, which had been gradually subsiding, was by her revived, and artfully fanned to the greatest height: whilst the coldness of my behaviour was exaggerated, and imputed to the affection I still retained for Miss Elvyn. Enraged at the bare supposition, he made his will, restricting me from assisting one, or ever marrying the other. Not satisfied with this, however, as your mother became seriously indisposed, and fearing I should disregard the sacrifice of my fortune if again at liberty; he determined to accomplish the design he had before projected of uniting Eliza to my brother.