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Rh "Dearest, sweetest Ethel!" cried he, "forgive me; you know not the circumstances in which I was placed!" To Ethel, this speech bore only one interpretation; she thought it referred to what Lady Marchrnont had suggested,—to pecuniary embarrassments: for these she was too young, too ignorant of their effect in the world, to have the slightest sympathy: however, she mastered the bitter anger that gave her momentary and forced composure, while she said,— "Perhaps I may be permitted to ask what these circumstances were?" "Impossible!" cried Courtenaye: "dearest Ethel, let me owe my forgiveness only to the kind and gentle heart which once I hoped was mine!" This appeal to the past was most unfortunate for his cause; his allusion to her feelings seemed to Ethel a positive insult. "Mr. Courtenaye," said she, coldly and haughtily, "might have spared any mention of affection so ill bestowed—of confidence so