"It was sheer carelessness on his part, then," continued Lavinia, "for I am sure that he has no delicacy in the matter. I remember Lady Marchmont as if it were but yesterday—so beautiful, so proud! where would her pride be, if she could know that her letters were in my hands? And yet they might be in worse; for I, at least, pity her!"
"Good God!" exclaimed Walter, rising, and pacing the room, after reading a few passages from the letter he held in his hand, "never can I forgive myself! every regret she expresses cuts me to the heart!"
"You do, indeed, seem to take it to heart!" exclaimed the actress, an expression of jealous anger crossing her features; "why, it is quite a God-send for you! many a heart is caught in the rebound. Tell her you wrote the letters; explain Sir George's treachery; and, my life upon it, but you will
'Bear off the honours of the well-fought day!'"
"And how," continued Walter, not at-
