lucie should be spared the pain of separation; and her father, always reluctant to turn his thoughts towards the dangerous ground of old, should come to the knowledge of the step, as a step taken, and not in the balance of suspense and doubt. how much of the incompleteness of his situation was referable to her father, through the painful anxiety to avoid reviving old associations of france in his mind, he did not discuss with himself. but, that circumstance too, had had its influence in his course.