"Nothing!" I said, despondently; "I have no clew as to where she may be now."
"Nor has Tardif," she continued; "my brother and I went across to Sark last week to ask him."
"That was very good of you," I interrupted.
"It was partly for our own sakes," she said, blushing faintly. "Martin, Tardif says that if you have once loved Olivia, it is once for all. You would never conquer it. Do you think that this is true? Be candid with us."
"Yes," I answered, "it is true. I could never love again as I love Olivia."
"Then, my dear Martin," said Johanna, very softly, "do you wish to keep Julia to her promise?"
I started violently. What! Did Julia wish to be released from that semi-engagement, and be free? Was it possible that any one else coveted my place in her affections, and in the new house which we had fitted up for ourselves? I felt like the dog in the manger. It seemed an unheard-of encroachment for any person to come between my cousin Julia and me.
"Do you ask me to set you free from your promise, Julia?" I asked, somewhat sternly.
"Why, Martin," she said, averting her face from me, "you know I should never consent to marry you, with the idea of your caring most for that girl. No, I could never do that. If I believed you would ever think of me as you used to do before you saw her, well, I would keep true to you. But is there any hope of that?"
"Let us be frank with one another," I answered; "tell me, is there any one else whom you would marry if I release you from this promise, which was only given, perhaps, to soothe my mothers last hours?"