The novels of Charles Brockden Brown, consisting of Wieland;or, The transformation. Arthur Mervyn; or, Memoirs of the year 1793. Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a sleep-walker. Jane Talbot. Ormond; or, The secret witness. Clara Howard; or, The enthusiasm of love. With a memoir of the author.

THE SECRET WITNESS.

155

which you discover your own likeness? Am I deceived,
or is it an incontrollable destiny that unites us?"
This declaration was truly unexpected by Constantia.
She gathered from it nothing but excitements of grief.
After some pause, she said, "This appeal to me has
made no change in my opinion. I still think that justice
requires you to become the husband of Helena. As to
me, do you think my happiness rests upon so slight a
foundation? I cannot love but when my understanding
points out to me the propriety of love. Ever since I
have known you, I have looked upon you as rightfully
belonging to another. Love could not take place in my
circumstances. Yet I will not conceal from you my
sentiments. I am not sure that, in different circumstances, I should not have loved. I am acquainted with
your worth. I do not look for a faultless man. I have
met with none whose blemishes were fewer.
"It matters not, however, what I should have been.
I cannot interfere, in this case, with the claims of my
fiiend. I have no passion to struggle with. I hope, in
every vicissitude, to enjoy your esteem, and nothing more.
There is but one way in which mine can be secured, and
that is by espousing this unhappy girl."
"No!" exclaimed Ormond. "Require not impossibilities. Helena can never be any thing to me. I
should, with unspeakably more willingness, assail my
own life."
"What," said the lady, "will Helena think of this
sudden and dreadful change? I cannot bear to think
upon the feelings that this information will excite."
"She knows it already. I have this moment left her.
I explained to her, in few words, my motives, and assured her of my unalterable resolution. I have vowed
never to see her more but as a brother; and this vow
she has just heard."
Constantia could not suppress her astonishment and
compassion at this intelligence:-" No, surely; you could
not be so cruel! And this was done with your usual
abruptness, I suppose. * Precipitate and implacable man!
Cannot you foresee the effects of this madness? You
have planted a dagger in her heart. You have dis