give. We have once this day stood upon terms little short of defiance; and to those, I fear, we must again return."
"Is her resentment, then, so implacable?" said Varney.
"Far from it," replied the Earl; "for, being what she is in spirit and in station, she has even this day been but too condescending, in giving me opportunities to repair what she thinks my faulty heat of temper."
"Ay," answered Varney; "the Italians say right--in lovers' quarrels, the party that loves most is always most willing to acknowledge the greater fault. So then, my lord, if this union with the lady could be concealed, you stand with Elizabeth as you did?"
Leicester sighed, and was silent for a moment, ere he replied.
"Varney, I think thou art true to me, and I will tell thee all. I do NOT stand where I did. I have spoken to Elizabeth--under what mad impulse I know not--on a theme which cannot be abandoned without touching every female feeling to the quick, and which yet I dare not and cannot prosecute. She can never, never forgive me for having caused and witnessed those yieldings to human passion."
"We must do something, my lord," said Varney, "and that speedily."
"There is nought to be done," answered Leicester, despondingly. "I am like one that has long toiled up a dangerous precipice, and when he is within one perilous stride of the top, finds his progress arrested when retreat has become impossible.
