around her
child, and press her convulsively to her heart. Anxiety, nearly equal
to that of his wife, had been an inmate of Mr. Hamilton's bosom as the
Duchess's voice reached his ear; but as he glanced on Caroline, a frown
gathered on his brow. He trembled involuntarily, for he felt assured it
was imprudence, to give it the mildest term, in her conduct that called
for this untimely visit, this strange return to her home. Already he had
been deceived; and while every softened feeling struggled for mastery in
the mother's bosom, the father stood ready to judge and to condemn,
fiercely conquering every rising emotion that swelled within. There was
even more lofty majesty in the carriage of her Grace, as she carefully
closed the drawing-room door behind her, and slowly advanced towards
Mrs. Hamilton; a cold, severe, unbending expression in every feature,
that struck terror to the hearts of both Emmeline and Ellen, whose
innocent festivity was indeed now rudely checked.

"Mrs. Hamilton," the Duchess said, and the grave and sad accents of her
voice caused the anxious mother hastily to raise her head, and gaze
inquiringly in her face, "to my especial care you committed your child.
I promised to guard her as my own, and on that condition alone you
entrusted her to me; I alone, therefore, restore her to you, thank God,
unscathed. I make no apology for this strange and apparently needless
intrusion at this late hour; deceived as I have been, my house was no
longer a fitting home for your daughter, and not another night could I
retain her, when my judgment told me her father's watchful guardianship
alone could protect her from the designing arts of one, of whom but very
little is known, and that little not such as would recommend him to my
favour. You, too, have been deceived, cruelly deceived, by that weak,
infatuated girl. Had you been aware that Lord Alphingham was her
secretly favoured lover, that the coldness with which she ever treated
him in public, the encouragement of another, were but to conceal from
you and her father her attachment to him, you would not have consented
to her joining a party of which he was a member. At my house he has
received increased encouragement. I marked them with a jealous eye, for
I could not believe his attentions sanctioned either by you or Mr.
Hamilton; but even my vigilance was at fault, for she had consented to
sever every tie which bound her to her too indulgent parents, and fly
with him