Page:Ethel Churchill 1.pdf/299

Rh

I feel the presence of my own despair; It darkens round me palpable and vast. I gave my heart unconsciously; it filled With love as flowers are filled with early dew, And with the light of morning. If he be false, he who appeared so true, Can there be any further truth in life, When falsehood wears such seeming?

started from his seat; absorbed in his letter, he had not perceived the alteration in Ethel's face, and the noise of her fall was the first thing that drew his attention. At once he felt what was the cause—the marriage he had so unconsciously communicated—and he stood for an instant lost in thought. But he was too much of a chemist not to have remedies at hand, and he raised the inanimate