At  length,  after  an  absence  of  several  weeks,  Barnard  reap-
peared, and  his  visits  became  constant  ;  he  renewed  his  suit  to
her  father  as  well  as  herself. Then  commenced  that  domestic
persecution,  so  common  in  this  very  tyrannical  world,  which
makes  us  sicken  to  bear,  and  which,  had  Isora  been  wholly  a
Spanish  girl,  she,  in  all  probability,  would  never  have  resisted:
so  much  of  custom  is  there  in  the  very  air  of  a  climate. But
she  did  resist  it,  partly  because  she  loved  me — and  loved  me
more  and  more  for  our  separation — and  partly  because  she
dreaded  and  abhorred  the  ferocious  and  malignant  passions  of
my  rival,  far  beyond  any  other  misery  with  which  fortune  could
threaten  her. "  Your  father  then  shall  hang  or  starve  !  "  said
Barnard,  one  day  in  uncontrollable  frenzy,  and  left  her. He
did  not  appear  again  at  the  house. The  Spaniard's  resources,
fed,  probably,  alone  by  Barnard,  failed. From  house  to  house
they  removed,  till  they  were  reduced  to  that  humble  one  in
which  I  had  found  them. There,  Barnard  again  sought  them  ;
there,  backed  by  the  powerful  advocate  of  want,  he  again
pressed  his  suit,  and  at  that  exact  moment  her  father  was  struck
with  the  numbing  curse  of  his  disease. "  There  and  then,"
said  Isora  candidly,  "I  might  have  yielded  at  last,  for  my  poor
father's  sake,  if  you  had  not  saved  me."

Once  only  (I  have  before  recorded  the  time),  did  Barnard
visit  her  in  the  new  abode  I  had  provided  for  her,  and  the  day
nfter  our  conversation  on  that  event  Isora  watched  and  watched
for  me,  and  I  did  not  come. From  the  woman  of  the  house
she  at  last  learned  the  cause. "  I  forgot,"  she  said  timidly —
and  in  conclusion,  "  I  forgot  womanhood,  and  modesty,  and  re-
,serve  ;  I  forgot  the  customs  of  your  country,  the  decencies  of
ray  own  ;  I  forgot  everything  in  this  world,  but  you — you  suf-
fering and  in  danger  ;  my  very  sense  of  existence  seemed  to
pass  from  me,  and  to  be  supplied  by  a  breathless,  confused,  and


DEVEREUJi. 