rica, or he might temporarily have been taken into favour by
contrast. Ultimately they agreed that the woman must be allowed to enter
the house, but could not be received. The earl was a widower; his mother
managed the family, and being hard to convince, she customarily carried
her point, save when it involved Percy's freedom of action. She was one
of the veterans of her sex that age to toughness; and the 'hysterical
fuss' she apprehended in the visit of this woman to Lord Dannisburgh's
death-bed and body, did not alarm her. For the sake of the household she
determined to remain, shut up in her room. Before night the house was
empty of any members of the family excepting old Lady Dacier and the
outstretched figure on the bed.

Dacier fled to escape the hearing of the numberless ejaculations
re-awakened in the family by his uncle's extraordinary dying request.
They were an outrage to the lady, of whom he could now speak as a
privileged champion; and the request itself had an air of proving her
stainless, a white soul and efficacious advocate at the celestial gates
(reading the mind of the dying man). So he thought at one moment: he had
thought so when charged with the message to her; had even thought it
a natural wish that she should look once on the face she would see no
more, and say farewell to it, considering that in life it could not
be requested. But the susceptibility to sentimental emotion beside a
death-bed, with a dying man's voice in the ear, requires fortification
if it is to be maintained;' and the review of his uncle's character
did not tend to make this very singular request a proof that the lady's
innocence was honoured in it. His epicurean uncle had no profound esteem
for the kind of innocence. He had always talked of Mrs. Warwick--with
warm respect for her: Dacier knew that he had bequeathed her a sum of
money. The inferences were either way. Lord Dannisburgh never spoke
evilly of any woman, and he was perhaps bound to indemnify her
materially as well as he could for what she had suffered.--On the
other hand, how easy it was to be the dupe of a woman so handsome
and clever.--Unlikely too that his uncle would consent to sit at
the Platonic banquet with her.--Judging by himself, Dacier deemed it
possible for man. He was not quick to kindle, and had lately seen much
of her, had found her a Lady Egeria, helpful in counsel, prompting,
inspiriting, reviving as well-waters, and as temperately cool: not one
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