The next morning Dr. Winthrop was an early visitor at the chateau. He was resolved to put his own and his brother’s fate to the test. Upon reaching the villa, he sent a servant directly to Miss Rochester, asking if she would oblige him with a private interview. She soon came, looking more beautiful than he had ever seen her, in a spotless dress of exquisitely embroidered white lawn, with a few brilliant autumn leaves fastened to her corsage, while her cheeks glowed with repressed excitement, and her eyes shone like stars. “I was almost afraid we should not see you again,” she remarked, as she came forward and greeted him cordially, “for your mother said you had important business which would detain you in Paris.” “I did not intend to return when I went away,” he replied, and she could see that he spoke with an effort, “but after what occurred yesterday, I felt that I owed it to you to come.” “I am very glad,” she returned, blushing delightedly and bestowing a shy glance upon him. “I felt that I owed it to you to explain even more fully than I have already done, by letter, the state of my feelings regarding the past, and the prospects of the future,” he resumed gravely, while his companion paled somewhat, and wondered if he was going to “back out” after all. “You know the story of my marriage,” he continued; “but I fear that you do not count the cost of linking your bright young life to one who has only a dead heart to offer you. You have done me the honor to tell me that you will be my wife, in spite of all this; but I have thought it best to talk with you face to face, that you may be sure you are making no mistake. My brother came to me last evening in a perfect frenzy of despair over the knowledge of your acceptance of my proposal. He loves you with the one passion of his life; he came to me pleading that I would release you from your pledge to me; he said he was pleading for life, home, happiness, that his love would either be his salvation or his ruin, and I believed him—it would have been impossible not to believe him. I told him, Miss Rochester, that I would submit the matter to you—that I would tell you that the Rochester-Hamilton fortune was nothing to me compared with his happiness and yours; that I would far rather forfeit my share of it than marry you if you loved him and would give him your hand. It seems to me as if we are all involved in the most unfortunate complication of circumstances which only perfect frankness and truthfulness can set right. I pray that you will be true to the dictates of your own heart. If you have any affection for my brother—and I gleaned from what he told me that he believes you have—if you could be happy with him, I assure you that I will do all in my power to make your future as bright as possible, as far as worldly prospects are concerned, and though we may lose the fortunes that were so strangely bequeathed, we shall at least have been true to ourselves, and you will win the best