would compensate in society for the portion that was denied you.  Thus was it, my child, that I thought in time, you would make a suitable alliance which would restore you to the position you hold by birth.  For ten years, Lenora, this has been my occupation and my hope.  What I had forgotten or never learned, I studied at night to teach you next morning; I labored hard that I might not only instruct you wisely but that you might acquire easily; and, at the same time, I strove by every honest means to conceal from you every thing that could give a hint or cause a suspicion by which your life might be shadowed.  Oh, Lenora,—­shall I confess it?—­I have suffered hunger and undergone the most cruel privations; I have passed half my nights mending my clothes, working in the garden, studying and practising in the dark, so as to hide our poverty from you and the world.  But all that was nothing; in the silence of night I was not forced to blush before any one.  By day I had to encounter all kinds of insults, and, with a bleeding heart, swallow affront and humiliation.”

Lenora looked at her father with eyes moistened by compassion.  De Vlierbeck pressed her hand, and continued:—­

“Be not sad, Lenora; if the Lord’s hand inflicted deep wounds with every blow, he bestowed a balm which cured them.  One little smile of thy gentle face was sufficient to make me pour forth an ejaculation to Heaven:  you, you at least were happy, and in your happiness I saw the fulfilment of my promise!

“At length I thought that God himself had thrown in our path one who would save you from threatening danger.  A mutual inclination arose between Gustave and you, and a marriage seemed the natural consequence.  Under these circumstances I apprized Monsieur Denecker, during his last visit, of the deplorable condition of my affairs; but no sooner did I make the disclosure than he peremptorily refused his consent to the union.  As if this terrible blow, which withered all my hopes, had not been sufficient to overwhelm me, I learned, almost at the same time, that the friend who loaned me four thousand francs, with the right to renew my obligation to him every year, had died in Germany, and that his heirs demanded the payment of the debt!  I ran all over town, rapped at every friendly door, ransacked heaven and earth in my despair, to escape this last ignominy; but all my efforts were fruitless.  To-morrow, perhaps, a placard will be stuck on the door of Grinselhof, announcing the sale not only of our estate but also of our furniture and of every trifling object that memory and association have rendered dear to us.  Honor requires that we shall surrender, to public sale, every thing of the least value to pay our debts.  If fate were kind enough to allow us to satisfy every creditor it would be a great consolation, my child, in our misery.  Does not this fatal history break your heart?”

“Is that all which makes you despond, father?  Have you no other grief?  Does your heart conceal no other secret from me?” asked Lenora.