nswood, and the difficulty he felt in explaining to that injured
nobleman what guests were under the shelter of his roof, did not soothe
these alarms; so that when Sir William Ashton heard the door of the
courtyard shut behind him with violence, the words of Alice rung in his
ears, "That he had drawn on matters too hardly with so fierce a race as
those of Ravenswood, and that they would bide their time to be avenged."

The subsequent frankness of the Master's hospitality, as their
acquaintance increased, abated the apprehensions these recollections
were calculated to excite; and it did not escape Sir William Ashton,
that it was to Lucy's grace and beauty he owed the change in their
host's behavior.

All these thoughts thronged upon him when he took possession of
the secret chamber. The iron lamp, the unfurnished apartment, more
resembling a prison than a place of ordinary repose, the hoarse and
ceaseless sound of the waves rushing against the base of the rock on
which the castle was founded, saddened and perplexed his mind. To his
own successful machinations, the ruin of the family had been in a great
measure owing, but his disposition was crafty, and not cruel; so
that actually to witness the desolation and distress he had himself
occasioned was as painful to him as it would be to the humane mistress
of a family to superintend in person the execution of the lambs and
poultry which are killed by her own directions. At the same time,
when he thought of the alternative of restoring to Ravenswood a large
proportion of his spoils, or of adopting, as an ally and member of his
own family, the heir of this impoverished house, he felt as the spider
may be supposed to do when his whole web, the intricacies of which had
been planned with so much art, is destroyed by the chance sweep of a
broom. And then, if he should commit himself too far in this matter, it
gave rise to a perilous question, which many a good husband, when under
temptation to act as a free agent, has asked himself without being able
to return a satisfactory answer: "What will my wife--what will Lady
Ashton say?" On the whole, he came at length to the resolution in
which minds of a weaker cast so often take refuge. He resolved to
watch events, to take advantage of circumstances as they occurred, and
regulate his conduct accordingly. In this spirit of temporising policy,
he at length composed his mind to rest.

CHAPTER XVI.

A slight note I have abou