him for it.
CHAPTER IX.
Ralph Corbet found it a very difficult thing to keep down his curiosity
during the next few days. It was a miserable thing to have Ellinor's
unspoken secret severing them like a phantom. But he had given her his
word that he would make no further inquiries from her. Indeed, he
thought he could well enough make out the outline of past events; still,
there was too much left to conjecture for his mind not to be always busy
on the subject. He felt inclined to probe Mr. Wilkins in their after-
dinner conversation, in which his host was frank and lax enough on many
subjects. But once touch on the name of Dunster and Mr. Wilkins sank
into a kind of suspicious depression of spirits; talking little, and with
evident caution; and from time to time shooting furtive glances at his
interlocutor's face. Ellinor was resolutely impervious to any attempts
of his to bring his conversation with her back to the subject which more
and more engrossed Ralph Corbet's mind. She had done her duty, as she
understood it; and had received assurances which she was only too glad to
believe fondly with all the tender faith of her heart. Whatever came to
pass, Ralph's love would still be hers; nor was he unwarned of what might
come to pass in some dread future day. So she shut her eyes to what
might be in store for her (and, after all, the chances were immeasurably
in her favour); and she bent herself with her whole strength into
enjoying the present. Day by day Mr. Corbet's spirits flagged. He was,
however, so generally uniform in the tenor of his talk--never very merry,
and always avoiding any subject that might call out deep feeling either
on his own or any one else's part, that few people were aware of his
changes of mood. Ellinor felt them, though she would not acknowledge
them: it was bringing her too much face to face with the great terror of
her life.
One morning he announced the fact of his brother's approaching marriage;
the wedding was hastened on account of some impending event in the duke's
family; and the home letter he had received that day was to bid his
presence at Stokely Castle, and also to desire him to be at home by a
certain time not very distant, in order to look over the requisite legal
papers, and to give his assent to some of them. He gave many reasons why
this unlooked-for departure of his was absolutely necessary; but no one
doubted it. He need not have alleged such reitera
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