r with which she might justly reproach
him. He felt that from the Duke he must bear what he would have borne
from no other man on earth; that to the Duke he must use a tone
different from that which he would have employed to any other man. He
paused a moment, both to let the Duke's laugh subside, and the first
angry feelings of his own heart wear off: but he then answered,--
"Perhaps, my lord, you attribute to me other feelings and greater
presumption than I have in reality been actuated by. Will you allow
me, before you utterly condemn me--will you allow me, I say, not to
point out any cause why you should have seen, or known, or
countenanced my attachment to your daughter, but merely to recall to
your remembrance the circumstances in which I have been placed, and in
which it was scarcely possible for me to resist those feelings of
love and attachment which I will not attempt to disown, which I never
will cast off, and which I will retain and cherish to the last hour
of my life, whatever may be your grace's ultimate decision, whatever
may be my fate, fortune, happiness, or misery, in other respects?"
The Duke was better pleased with Wilton's tone, and, to say the
truth, though his resolution was in no degree shaken, yet the anger
which he had called up, in order to drown every word of opposition,
had by this time nearly exhausted itself.
"My ultimate decision!" said the Duke; "sir, there is no decision to
be made: the matter is decided.--But go on, sir, go on--I am
perfectly willing to hear. I am not so unreasonable as not to hear
anything that you may wish to say, without giving you the slightest
hope that I may be shaken by words: which cannot be. What is it you
wish to say?"
"Merely this, your grace," replied Wilton. "The first time I had the
honour of meeting your grace, I rendered yourself, and more
particularly the Lady Laura, a slight service, a very slight one, it
is true, but yet sufficient to make you think, yourself, that I was
entitled to claim your after-acquaintance, and to justify your
reproach for not coming to your box at the theatre. You must admit
then, certainly, that I did not press myself into the society of the
Lady Laura."
"Oh, certainly not, certainly not," replied the Duke--"I never
accused you of that, sir. Your conduct, your external demeanour, has
always been most correct. It is not of any presumption of manners
that I accuse you."
"Well, my lord," continued Wilton, "it so happened that an accidental
circumstance, not w