"And can you ask, can you not guess, Ellen,--I mean Miss Ravensworth, for such is the name I suppose by which I should now address you? But you will pardon me if the old familiar name occasionally escapes me. Can you not guess the reason? It is as a peacemaker I come then. Oh, Miss Ravensworth, you cannot think how long it took me to summon resolution for this meeting! Oh! I pray Heaven it may not be in vain. I cannot bear to live at enmity with any one, least of all with one I once loved--still love--so well; and who once avowed her love to me; let us be friends; let us once more love each other." "I have no quarrel with you, Captain L'Estrange. I hope I have always behaved in a friendly manner. I hope always to be your friend," said Ellen, in a cold voice. "My friend! and nothing more? Can our relationship extend no further?" For some moments Ellen was silent, and hesitated as to her reply, then in a calm collected voice she said: "I am deeply grieved if I vex you, Captain L'Estrange. I will be your friend, but ask no more; my acquaintance with you ends with friendship." "Oh, Ellen, this from you!" exclaimed the unhappy young man. "Have you then forgotten all? Have you forgotten what you once were to me? are all your promises forgotten? have you no more than this to say to him who was once your lover, who is so still? Oh, my lost heart!" And unable to control his feelings he hid his face in his hands. "I have not forgotten," replied Ellen, in a voice tremulous with emotion, for she deeply felt for the disappointed lover. "I have not forgotten anything, nor have I forgotten how Edward L'Estrange was the first to quarrel, and when Ellen Ravensworth withdraws her love, she does so never to give it back again." "Have pity on me. Oh! be as you have been in happier, better days. I acknowledge my fault--deeply I repent it. Oh, Ellen, Ellen! forgive, and forget." "I forgive you, and from my heart. I cannot so soon forget. Besides, you ask an impossibility; my heart is no longer mine to give, even if I wished. I am no longer free even though I desired. I will be explicit, I will hide nothing. Edward L'Estrange, I love another. I love you not. I will be your friend, more I cannot, I will not be." "Ellen, may you never feel the pangs that now wring my heart; may you never know what it is to be deserted as I am now: yet methinks you know not him with whom you have trusted your heart; you may repent your choice yet." "I understand you not, Captain L'Estrange." "Then I will be more concise. Perhaps you are not aware it is said you are not the only lady who holds a place in Lord Wentworth's heart? Perhaps you do not know it is whispered a fairer lady engrosses a larger share of the Earl's love than you do?" "Captain L'Estrange, I believe it not: I deem the Earl too noble. I think too highly of his love to entertain such base thoughts of him."