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96 how much of life, has passed since then! How changed I am!—how much I have seen depart! My love for Evelyn—but I will not dwell upon that; even here my cheek burns to think I could have placed my heart's dearest trust in such an unworthy idol. I disdain not him, but myself, that I could ever have loved him. But that I am glad to be thus well aware of his perfidious meanness, how I should regret that we ever left Italy!—we were happier there. Poor Henriette! how little did I dream we came hither only to see you die! Ah! it is bitter to part with all that life held so precious. Methinks death were better than life, but for their sorrow whom we leave behind. None would have been left to sorrow for me—yes, Guido, but not long;"—and the ghastly apprehension which had of late so haunted her, made her pale with imaginary fear. But the presence of death surrounds all things for a while with its own terror, and the loss of one friend seems to forebode the loss of another.

It was some time before she opened the packet given her by the Duc de Mercœur. On breaking the seal, she found that it contained a small miniature of the Duchesse, surrounded with large pearls, and suspended to an exquisite Venetian chain, with links fragile as those of life.