en
the companions of that exquisite taste and that charming delicacy which,
even to witness, has added great felicity to my existence. Oh! tell
me--tell me that they shall be for me something better than a transient
spectacle. Condescend to share the fortune and the fate of one who only
esteems his lot in life because it enables him to offer you a station
not utterly unworthy of your transcendent excellence!'

'I have permitted your Grace to proceed too far. For your--for my own
sake, I should sooner have interfered, but, in truth, I was so astounded
at your unexpected address that I have but just succeeded in recalling
my scattered senses. Let me again express to you my acknowledgments for
an honour which I feel is great; but permit me to regret that for your
offer of your hand and fortune these acknowledgments are all I can
return.'

'Miss Dacre! am I then to wake to the misery of being rejected?'

'A little week ago, Duke of St. James, we were strangers. It would be
hard if it were in the power of either of us now to deliver the other to
misery.'

'You are offended, then, at the presumption which, on so slight an
acquaintance, has aspired to your hand. It is indeed a high possession.
I thought only of you, not of myself. Your perfections require no time
for recognition. Perhaps my imperfections require time for indulgence.
Let me then hope!'

'You have misconceived my meaning, and I regret that a foolish phrase
should occasion you the trouble of fresh solicitude, and me the pain of
renewed refusal. In a word, it is not in my power to accept your hand.'

He rose from the table, and stifled the groan which struggled in his
throat. He paced up and down the room with an agitated step and a
convulsed brow, which marked the contest of his passions. But he was
not desperate. His heart was full of high resolves and mighty meanings,
indefinite but great, He felt like some conqueror, who, marking the
battle going against him, proud in his infinite resources and invincible
power, cannot credit the madness of a defeat. And the lady, she leant
her head upon her delicate arm, and screened her countenance from his
scrutiny.

He advanced.

'Miss Dacre! pardon this prolonged intrusion; forgive this renewed
discourse. But let me only hope that a more favoured rival is the cause
of my despair, and I will thank you----'

'My Lord Duke,' she said, looking up with a faint blush, but with a
flashing eye, and in an audible and e