ed the possession of his
heart--he doubted, but he did not long doubt, that, which he felt was
love. "And yet," said he to himself, "it is love of such a kind, as
arising from causes independent of the object itself can scarce deserve
that sacred name. Did I not love Lady Matilda before I beheld her?--for
her mother's sake I loved her--and even for her father's. Should I have
felt the same affection for her, had she been the child of other
parents? No. Or should I have felt that sympathetic tenderness which now
preys upon my health, had not her misfortunes excited it? No." Yet the
love which is the result of gratitude and pity only, he thought had
little claim to rank with his; and after the most deliberate and deep
reflection, he concluded with this decisive opinion--He had loved Lady
Matilda, in _whatever state_, in _whatever circumstances_; and that the
tenderness he felt towards her, and the anxiety for her happiness before
he knew her, extreme as they were, were yet cool and dispassionate
sensations, compared to those which her person and demeanour had
incited--and though he acknowledged, that by the preceding sentiments,
his heart was softened, prepared, and moulded, as it were, to receive
this last impression, yet the violence of his passion told him that
genuine love, if not the basis on which it was founded, had been the
certain consequence. With a strict scrutiny into his heart he sought
this knowledge, but arrived at it with a regret that amounted to
despair.

To shield him from despondency, he formed in his mind a thousand
visions, displaying the joys of his union with Lady Matilda; but her
father's implacability confounded them all. Lord Elmwood was a man who
made few resolutions--but those were the effect of deliberation; and as
he was not the least capricious or inconstant in his temper, they were
resolutions which no probable event could shake. Love, that produces
wonders, that seduces and subdues the most determined and rigid spirits,
had in two instances overcome the inflexibility of Lord Elmwood; he
married Lady Elmwood contrary to his determination, because he loved;
and for the sake of this beloved object, he had, contrary to his
resolution, taken under his immediate care young Rushbrook; but the
magic which once enchanted away this spirit of immutability was no
more--Lady Elmwood was no more, and the charm was broken.

As Miss Woodley was deprived of the opportunity of desiring Rushbrook
not to w