and Italy, which would prevent their returning to England for some time,
when she hoped all present irritation at her conduct would have
subsided; that her father's severity had tended to this step. Had he
been kind, and like other fathers, she would have sacrificed her own
desires, conscious that his reason for prohibiting her union with
Alphingham was good, however it might be secret; but when from her
childhood her every wish had been unreasonably thwarted, she was
compelled to choose in such a case for herself. She should be sorry to
live in enmity with her father, but even if she did, she never could
regret the step she had taken. To her mother she wrote as if assured of
her forgiveness, or rather her continued favour; forgiveness she did not
seem to think it at all necessary to ask, saying, she was sure her kind
and indulgent mother would not regret her union with Lord Alphingham,
when she solemnly declared it had made her happier than she had ever
been before. Such Lilla said were the contents of her letter; but the
warm-hearted girl could not refer without indignation to the utter want
of affection which breathed throughout. Her mother, Lilla continued to
say, had been in a most alarming state from the time she received the
letter, but she fancied occasioned more by the dread of what her father
would say on his return, than from Annie's conduct.

When Mrs. Hamilton saw Lady Helen, she felt that Lilla was right. The
unhappy mother reproached her own carelessness, indolence, and Annie's
ingratitude, but it was evident the dread of her husband was uppermost
in her mind--a dread which made her so extremely ill, from a succession
of violent and uncontrolled hysterics, that Mrs. Hamilton did not leave
her the whole of that day; nor would she permit the unhappy father to
enter his wife's apartment on his return, till she had exacted from him
a promise to forbear all reproaches towards his suffering wife, all
allusions to the past.

With the stern brevity of the injured, Grahame addressed his disobedient
child. His forgiveness and his blessing he sent, though he said she had
asked for neither; that he bore no enmity to her, he wrote; his home and
his heart were ever open to receive her, should she again require the
protection of the one, the affection of the other. She had chosen for
herself; linked her fate with one against whom many tongues had spoken,
and he could only pray that her present happiness might never chan