was  among  the  wealthiest  and  most  dissipated  of  his  order ;
and  two  years  after  our  separation  I  met  once  more  with  the
victim  of  my  unworthiness,  blazing  in  *  the  full  front'  of
courtly  splendor !  the  leader  of  its  gaieties,  and  the  cynosure
of  her  followers.  Intimate  with  the  same  society,  we  were  per-
petually cast  together,  and  Caroline  was  proud  of  displaying
the  indifference  towards  me,  which,  if  she  felt  not,  she  had  at
least  learnt  artfully  to  assume.  This  indifference  was  her
ruin.  The  depths  of  my  evil  passion  were  again  sounded  and
aroused,  and  I  resolved  yet  to  humble  the  pride  and  conquer
the  coldness  which  galled  to  the  very  quick  the  morbid  acute-
ness  of  my  self-love.  I  again  attached  myself  to  her  train — I
bowed  myself  to  the  very  dust  before  her.  What  to  me  were
her  chilling  reply  and  disdainful  civilities  ? — only  still  stronger
excitements  to  persevere.
"I  spare  you  and  myself  the  gradual  progress  of  my
schemes.  A  woman  may  recover  her  first  passion,  it  is  true  ;  but
then  she  must  replace  it  with  another.  That  other  was  denied
to  Caroline ;  she  had  not  even  children  to  engross  her
thoughts  and  to  occupy  her  affections;  and  the  gay  world,
which  to  many  becomes  an  object,  was  to  her  only  an  escape.
"  Clarence,  my  triumph  came !  Lady  Walden  (who  had
never  known  our  secret)  invited  me  to  her  house  ;  Caroline
was  there.  In  the  same  spot  where  we  had  so  often  stood
before,  and  in  which  her  earliest  affections  were  insensibly
breathed  away,  in  that  same  spot  I  drew  from  her  colorless
and  trembling  lips  t«he  confession  of  her  weakness,  the  restored
and  pervading  power  of  my  remembrance.
