fruits of the direst enmity may grow out of it. By untimely concealments
may my peace be forfeited forever. Judge then between your obligations to
me, and those of secrecy, into which you seem to have entered with
another.

My happiness, my future conduct, are in your hand. Mould them, govern
them, as you think proper. I have pointed out the means, and once more
conjure you, by the love which you once bore, which you still bear, to me,
to use them.

JANE TALBOT.




Letter XV


_To Jane Talbot_

New York, October 27.

Insolent creature that thou art, Jane, and cunning as insolent! To
elude my just determination by such an artifice! To counterfeit a strange
hand in the direction of thy letter, that I might thereby be induced to
open it!

Thou wilt not rest, I see, till thou hast torn from my heart every
root, every fibre of my once-cherished tenderness; till thou hast laid my
head low in the grave. To number the tears and the pangs which thy