 to her. Godolphin, well
acquainted with his hand, had kept the letter from her. She knew not
that he had applied to Emmeline: and tho' she had torn herself from him,
and had vowed never again to write to him, to name him, to hear from
him, she involuntarily felt disposed to accuse him of neglect, of
ingratitude, of cruelty, for having never attempted to write to her or
see her; and added the poignant anguish of jealousy to the dreary
horrors of despair. That Fitz-Edward was for ever lost to her, she
seemed to be convinced; yet that he should forget her, or attach himself
to another, seemed a torment so entirely insupportable, that when her
mind dwelt upon it, as it perpetually did, her reason was inadequate to
the pain it inflicted; and when she touched on that subject, Emmeline
too evidently saw symptoms of that derangement of intellect to which she
had once before been a melancholy witness.

With a mind thus unsettled, and a heart thus oppressed, the consequences
of touching on the application of Fitz-Edward to herself, might, as
Emmeline believed, have the most alarming effect on Lady Adelina. And
she dared not therefore name it unless she had the concurrence of
Godolphin. She only attempted to soothe and tranquillize her mind,
without giving her those assurances of his undiminished attachment,
which, she thought, might in the event only encrease her anguish, if her
brother remained inflexible. On the other hand, she forbore to
remonstrate with her on the necessity there might be to forget him;
being too well convinced that the arguments which were to enforce that
doctrine, would be useless, and perhaps appear cruel, to a heart so
deeply wounded as was that of the luckless, lovely Adelina.

But in pouring her sorrows into the bosom of her friend she appeared to
find consolation. The tender pity of Emmeline was a balm to her wounded
mind; and growing more composed, she began to discourse on the singular
discovery Emmeline had made, and to enter with some interest into the
affairs depending between her and the Marquis of Montreville; and by
questions, aided by the natural frankness of Emmeline, at length became
acquainted with the happy prospects, which, tho' distant, opened to
Godolphin.

This was the only information that seemed to have the power of
suspending for a moment the weight of those afflictions which Lady
Adelina suffered. 'My brother then,' cried she--'my dear Godolphin, will
be happy! And you, my most amiable friend, will constitute, while you
share his
