the only child of my beloved patroness, and
load me with rights, which belong to her."

Here Rushbrook stopped--Lord Elmwood was silent too, for near half a
minute; but still his countenance continued fixed, with his unvaried
resolves.

After this long pause, the Earl said with composure, but with firmness,
"Have you finished, Mr. Rushbrook?"

"All that I dare to utter, my Lord; and I fear, I have already said too
much."

Rushbrook now trembled more than ever, and looked pale as death; for the
ardour of speaking being over, he waited his sentence, with less
constancy of mind than he expected he should.

"You disapprove my conduct, it seems;" said Lord Elmwood, "and in that,
you are but like the rest of the world--and yet, among all my
acquaintance, you are the only one who has dared to insult me with your
opinion. And this you have not done inadvertently; but willingly, and
deliberately. But as it has been my fate to be used ill, and severed
from all those persons to whom my soul has been most attached; with less
regret I can part from you, than if this were my first trial."

There was a truth and a pathetic sound in the utterance of these words,
that struck Rushbrook to the heart--and he beheld himself as a barbarian,
who had treated his benevolent and only friend, with insufferable
liberty; void of respect for those corroding sorrows which had
imbittered so many years of his life, and in open violation of his most
peremptory commands. He felt that he deserved all he was going to
suffer, and he fell upon his knees; not so much to deprecate the doom he
saw impending, as thus humbly to acknowledge, it was his due.

Lord Elmwood, irritated by this posture, as a sign of the presumptuous
hope that he might be forgiven, suffered now his anger to burst all
bounds; and raising his voice, he exclaimed in a rage,

"Leave my house, Sir. Leave my house instantly, and seek some other
home."

Just as these words were begun, Sandford opened the library door, was
witness to them, and to the imploring situation of Rushbrook. He stood
silent with amazement!

Rushbrook arose, and feeling in his mind a presage, that he might never
from that hour, behold his benefactor more; as he bowed in token of
obedience to his commands, a shower of tears covered his face; but Lord
Elmwood, unmoved, fixed his eyes upon him, which pursued him with
enraged looks to the end of the room. Here he had to pass Sandford; who,
for the first time i