inmost heart of--of a most lovely young lady, as noble by her character as by her lineage,"--and he glanced at the open sketch-book.
"The Lady Angelica," I quietly said.
"Sir!" he exclaimed, quickly changing color, and assuming his most frigid expression and manner. But as quickly, and before I could speak, his sad smile and friendly tone returned, and he said,--
"Ah! I see,--Ferdy has been babbling of his visions and his dreams. Yes, the Lady Angelica. 'Very charming,' my uncle granted, 'but very poor; less of the angel and more of the heiress was desirable,' he said,--'less heaven and more land. A decayed family was only a little worse than an obscure one,--a poor knight not a whit more respectable than a rich merchant. I must relinquish my little romance,--I had not time for it; I had occupation enough for the scant leisure my family duties'--and he laid stress on the words--'left me in the duties of my post. He would endeavor to find arguments for the lady and employment for me.'
"It was in vain for me to remonstrate,--I was too familiar with my uncle's temper to waste my time and breath so. I would be silent, I resolved, and pursue my honorable and gallant course without regard to his scandalous schemes. I wrote to the 'Lady Angelica,'--since Ferdy's name for her is so well chosen,--telling her all, giving her solemn assurances of my unchangeable purpose toward her, and scorn of my uncle's mercenary ambition. She replied very quietly: 'She, also, was not without pride; she would come and see for herself';--and she came at once.
"The family arrived in London in the evening. Within two hours I was sent--after the fashion of an old-time courier, 'Ride! ride! ride!--for your life! for your life! for your life!'--to Turin with despatches, and sealed instructions for my own conduct, not to be opened till I arrived; then I found my orders were, to remain at Turin until it should be my uncle's pleasure to recall me.
"I had not been in Turin a month when a letter came from------the Lady Angelica. 'It was her wish that all intercourse between us, by interview or correspondence, should cease at once and forever. She assumed this position of her own free will, and she was resolute to maintain it. She trusted that I would not inquire obtrusively into her motives,--she had no fear that I would doubt that they were worthy of her. Her respect for me was unabated,--her faith in me perfect. I had her blessing and her anxious prayers. I must go on my way in brave silence and patience, nor ever for one moment be so weak as to fool myself into a hope that she would change her purpose.'
"What should I do? I had no one to advise with; my mother, whose faith in her brother's wisdom was sure, was in Madrid, and my father had been dead some years. At first my heart was full of bitter curses, and my uncle had not at his heels a heartier hater than I. Then came the merely romantic thought, that this might be but a test she would put me to,--that he might be innocent and ignorant of my misfortune. With the thought I flung my heart into writing, and madly plied her with one long, passionate letter after another. I got no answers; but by his spies my uncle was apprised of all I did.
"About this time,--it was in 1832,--Zea-Bermudez was recalled to Madrid in a grave crisis, and appointed to the administration of foreign affairs. Ferdinand VII. was apparently approaching the end of his reign and his life. The Apostolical party, exulting in their strength, and confiding in those well-laid plans which, with mice and men, 'gang aft agley,' imprudently showed their hand, and suffered their favorite project to transpire; which was, to set aside the ordinance by which the King had made null the Salic law, in favor of his infant daughter, and to support the pretensions of the King's brother, Carlos, to the throne.
"By this stupid flourish the Apostolical
