st friends. He then rushed back again to
conclude the little that wanted to the labours of his toilet, leaving
Wilton alone with her at the breakfast-table.
"Oh, Mr. Brown," exclaimed Laura, with her face glowing with
eagerness, "I hope and trust that you have settled this business, for
I have been most anxious ever since last night. Sir John Fenwick
behaved so ill, and quitted the house in such fury, and that
dark-looking man who accompanied him back, used such threatening
language towards my father, that indeed--indeed, I feared for the
consequences this morning."
Wilton evidently saw that her fears pointed in any direction but the
right one, and that she apprehended some hostile rencontre between
her father and the two rash Jacobites with whom he had suffered
himself to be entangled. Knowing, however, that it could be anything
but the desire of such men to call public attention to their
proceedings, he did not scruple to give her every assurance that no
duel, or angry collision of any kind, was likely, to take place: at
which news her face glowed with pleasure, and her lips flowed with
many an expression of gratitude, although he assured her again and
again that he had done nothing on earth to merit her thanks.
The smiles were very beautiful, however, and very grateful to his
heart; but he found that every moment was adding to feelings which it
was madness to indulge; and, therefore, as soon as the Duke had
returned, he took his leave, and turned his steps homeward. He knew,
indeed, that he should have to encounter the same pleasant danger
again that very afternoon; that he should have to see her, to be in
the same room, to sit at the same table with her, to speak to her,
even though it were but for a moment; but then it would be all under
restraint; the eyes of the many would be upon them; there would be no
open communication, no speaking the real feelings of the heart, no
freedom from the dull routine of society.
He was perhaps five minutes behind his time, but the Earl was all
complaisance: the arrangements that he had made for his son; the
unexpected facility with which Lord Sherbrooke had apparently entered
into those arrangements; the political importance of the alliance
with the Duke; the immense accession of wealth to his family; the
aspect of public affairs, were all sufficient to mellow down a
demeanour which, to his inferiors at least, was generally harsh and
proud. But yet Wilton could not help believing that there was a
peculiar expres