never urge nor use that power which you possess over my heart, to obtain a knowledge of what I am obliged to conceal from you.’
“I swore it to her.
“‘Now, my dear Florentina, forgive me, if, for the first time in my life, I have a secret from you; and also for not being satisfied with your mere word for the promise I have exacted from you. My father, to whom I have confided every thing, has imposed these two obligations on me, and his last words were to that effect.’
“I begged her to come to the point.
“‘Words are inadequate to describe,’ said she, ‘the weight I felt my soul oppressed with when I went to get my clothes. I had no sooner closed the door of the room in which you and my father were, than I fancied I was about to be separated from life and all that constituted my happiness; and that I had many dreadful nights to linger through, ere I could arrive at a better and more peaceful abode. The air which I breathed on the staircase was not such as usually circulates around us; it oppressed my breathing, and caused large drops of icy perspiration to fall from my forehead. Certain it is, I was not alone on the staircase; but for a long while I dared not look around me.
“‘You know, my dear Florentina, with what earnestness I wished and prayed, but in vain, that
