232

THE MAGIC CRYSTAL; OR,

“ And does she you love know the violence of the passionshe has inspired? can she guess the intensity of the love anature like yours can feel ?”

“ 1 think she can. I think she- Hush ! softly ! oh !

Jocelyn, bow down thine ear to my lips — I think she feels—Ithink she returns it. Yet, oh, if I am mistaken ! ”

Waldegrave turned towards him, the tears dimmed his gazeas it sought that of his companion. He gently laid his handupon his arm.

“ Go, my friend ! ” he said, softly; “ go, then, and tell yourtale of love. Gaze boldly upon the mirror of the future; comegood or ill, my friend ! my preceptor ! my preserver ! you whofirst taught my heart to aspire—my hand to practise this divineart — consult your talisman ! Summon the picture of mythought, and never shall you see there one black spot betweenWaldegrave and De Grey !”

The latter scarcely seemed to hear the last words. Musingand abstracted, he appeared to contemplate some remote object.At length, hurriedly going to a cabinet, he took something fromits recesses. “ Wait there ! ” he exclaimed, standing beside the

picture, “ and pray for me ! If I fail-but, no — Hope is left

even to me; the crystal ” — its touch seemed to burn as hespoke,—“has not yet entirely forbidden that. Pray for me—pray for me ! ”

^ >}«

Mr. Greville had received a letter from De Grey the morningbefore, in reply to which the latter had been summoned; yetthe information the answer gave, the permission it granted, hadbeen alike unheeded. It was late in the evening when, with ablush that thrilled through her veins, Iva heard her father’s stepupon the staircase.

“ My daughter ! ” he said, entering, and affectionately kiss-ing her forehead; “ he is here, anxious to thank you, eager