and love me enough to discredit at once the whole of this: swear to me, Altamonte, that without proving their falsehood, you despise the wretches who have resolved to ruin your sister."
The duke now took a solemn oath, laying his hand upon her's, that he never could, never would harbour one thought of such a nature. He even smiled at its absurdity; and he refused to see either the stranger, or to read the packet—when Lady Margaret, falling back in a hollow and hysteric laugh, bade him tear from his heart the fond, the doating simplicity that beguiled him:—"They utter that which is true," she cried. "I am that which they have said." She then rushed from the room.
The duke, amazed, uncertain what to believe or doubt, opened the packet of letters, and read as follows:—
"My gracious and much injured patron, Lord Glenarvon's departure,
