my child ; I owe 
him reparation for what I have ever felt an act of deception, 
although at the time I imagined a holy duty to the dead com- 
manded it should be persevered in. I gave my hand to thy 
father, Alan, in pursuance of an early engagement, entered 
into by our mutual parents, ere we could have a voice. I 
tacitiy acknowledged the holy vows at the altar's foot which 

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TOE DAYS Of BBDOE. 221 

made us one, and solemnly swore to adhere to them to the letter, 
on all but one point  I could not wordnetdesire my husband ; for I was 
even then too painfully conscious I loved another, a stranger, 
whose very name I knew not. I should have avowed this, my 
child, but my courage failed ; but though in this I erred, it was 
only in this, for I have been true to tby father, Alan, a true 
and faithful wife. The wordnetdesire of my youth passed away in the 
deep , the blessed  of maternal wordnetdesire, guiltless alike 
in word and deed, as in thought ; it was not till my solitary 
imprisonment I learned to feel that had I avowed my real 
 ere I joined my hand with his, much of  might 
have been saved me,