phan." Instead of speaking of the relations between them as a solace to which she had accustomed her daily life, he alluded to them only as a source of saving strength which he himself was too helpless to resign. Thus it seemed as though the curves in which these two lives were moving, having at first run almost parallel, and then diverged far asunder, were bound by natural laws to rejoin each other in completing the perfect circle. CHAPTER II. MATED OR CHECKMATED? BUT in the innermost soul of Edmond all was not so peaceful as the smoothness on the surface seemed to indicate. It appears from many of Juliet's letters that the habitual placidity of his self-composure was sometimes inexplicably disturbed. In one of her letters, written about this time, I found the following passage: "The fatigues of his last campaign, however, must have shaken Edmond's health to an extent which, in despite of his extraordinary powers of self-restraint and endurance, he can not quite conceal. There are moments when his face suddenly becomes white and bloodless; his eye settles in glassy fixity upon a single spot; the wonted composure of his features is disturbed by a fearful spasm; he stands as if horrorstruck, his lips convulsively compressed, his chest violently heaving. These attacks are, as he himself assures us, the results, happily now rare and rarer, of a violent fever, occasioned by a dangerous wound, which nearly proved fatal to him in the Caucasus. He fancies, and not, I dare say, without reason, that the coarse remedies and strong drugs of the Russian military physicians have proved even more detrimental to his constitution than the fever itself. These fits, he says, are very painful, but not at all dangerous. I shall never forget one evening when, for the first time, I witnessed this strong man, so habitually master of himself, completely convulsed by one of these strange seizures. "The night was wild and gusty. An autumn storm was howling outside. There were long sighing noises about the house. One could hear the doors creak wearily in the empty upper rooms, while the dead leaves, blowing up the windy avenues, and whirling round the house, kept up a continual patter on the window-panes, like the tapping of elfin fingers. Edmond and I were playing at chess. Mother was dozing in her arm-chair by the fire. I need hardly tell you that Edmond is much stronger than I at this game. But he has the talent to equalize our forces by calculating to a nicety the value of the pieces he gives me, so that I can almost fancy myself at times a match for him. That night the game had lasted longer than usual. I really think that we were both in earnest, and each of us doing his best to win. For the first time, I seemed from the very outset to have divined the plan of my adversary's battle, and had so arranged my game that, whenever he tried to catch me, I was ready for him with a counter-move, on which he evidently had not reckoned. "At one moment he seemed to have quite lost patience. Strange how eager this game can make one! It really tries the temper. Seeing him so excited, I too, on my part, put out all my strength to escape his attack, which was boldly conceived and hotly pressed. He was so resolved to harass my Queen that his usual caution failed him; and, by an oversight, he laid his King open to my game. "At last, however, he made a master-move with his King's Knight just as I thought myself sure to checkmate him. I was so vexed by this disappointment that I had a strong mind to upset the board, and was just on the point of doing so, when suddenly, as if by enchantment, the whole game appeared completely changed. A single piece had achieved this miracle. A Castle which I am almost sure I had been keeping in reserve, well protected in a corner of the board on my enemy's side, was now standing out in full check to Edmond's King. I did not notice this piece in its new place till Edmond had withdrawn his hand from the board. I thought at first that it must have been accidentally displaced by his sleeve; but this could hardly have been the fact, for there were other pieces in the way which, in that case, he must have upset. I certainly felt sure that I had not moved the piece myself, and how it got half across the board without my noticing it is to this hour a puzzle to me. I had not time to make it out; for all at once I was struck by the appalling change in Edmond. His face was deadly white, his lips blue, his eye wild and haggard, and his whole frame convulsed and shivering. "To add to the strange horror of this fearful metamorphose, mother, who was dreaming in her sleep, suddenly began to mutter, "Yes, yes, Felix, I know-I know!' "I tried to assist Edmond, who had risen from his chair, but he waved me away with his hand, and staggered out of the room, feeling his way with both hands along the wall like a blind man. "I never told mother about this attack of Edmond's, |