tenance was graver than of
yore. Misfortune and misery had subdued even Mistress Pauncefort. The
foreign servant opened the door of the carriage; a young man, who was
a stranger to the household, but who was in deep mourning, alighted,
and then Lady Annabel appeared. The steward advanced to welcome her,
the household bowed and curtseyed. She smiled on them for a moment
graciously and kindly, but her countenance immediately reassumed a
serious air, and whispering one word to the strange gentleman, she
entered the hall alone, inviting the steward to follow her.

'I hope your ladyship is well; welcome home, my lady; welcome again to
Cherbury; a welcome return, my lady; hope Miss Venetia is quite well;
happy to see your ladyship amongst us again, and Miss Venetia too, my
lady.' Lady Annabel acknowledged these salutations with kindness, and
then, saying that Miss Herbert was not very well and was fatigued with
her journey, she dismissed her humble but trusty friends. Lady Annabel
then turned and nodded to her fellow-traveller.

Upon this Lord Cadurcis, if we must indeed use a title from which he
himself shrank, carried a shrouded form in his arms into the hall,
where the steward alone lingered, though withdrawn to the back part
of the scene; and Lady Annabel, advancing to meet him, embraced his
treasured burden, her own unhappy child.

'Now, Venetia! dearest Venetia!' she said, ''tis past; we are at
home.'

Venetia leant upon her mother, but made no reply.

'Upstairs, dearest,' said Lady Annabel: 'a little exertion, a very
little.' Leaning on her mother and Lord Cadurcis, Venetia ascended the
staircase, and they reached the terrace-room. Venetia looked around
her as she entered the chamber; that scene of her former life,
endeared to her by so many happy hours, and so many sweet incidents;
that chamber where she had first seen Plantagenet. Lord Cadurcis
supported her to a chair, and then, overwhelmed by irresistible
emotion, she sank back in a swoon.

No one was allowed to enter the room but Pauncefort. They revived her;
Lord Cadurcis holding her hand, and touching, with a watchful finger,
her pulse. Venetia opened her eyes, and looked around her. Her
mind did not wander; she immediately recognised where she was, and
recollected all that had happened. She faintly smiled, and said, in a
low voice 'You are all too kind, and I am very weak. After our trials,
what is this, George?' she added, struggling to appear animated;