. You are his son, I say, Wilton. Do you hear?--His
natural son, by a very pretty lady called Miss Harriet Oswald!--But
upon my honour I must go, or I shall miss the King."
And turning round with an air of perfect coolness and composure, the
Earl quitted the room, leaving Wilton thunderstruck and overwhelmed
with grief.

CHAPTER XLIII.
The whole of the Earl's dark scheme was cleared up to Wilton's eyes
in a moment; and the secret of his own fate was only given to him in
conjunction with an insight into that black and base transaction, of
which he had been made an unwitting tool.
Horrible, most horrible to himself was the disappointment of all his
hopes. The bright dreams that he had entertained, the visions of gay
things which he had suffered the enchanter Imagination to call forth
from the former obscurity of his fate, were all dispelled by the
words that he had just heard spoken; and everything dark, and painful
and agonising, was spread out around him in its stead. He was as one
who, having fallen asleep in a desert, has dreamt sweet dreams, and
then suddenly wakes with the rising sun, to find nothing but arid
desolation around him.
Thus, painful indeed would have been his feelings if he had only had
to contemplate his situation in reference to himself alone; but when
he recollected how his position bore upon the Duke and Laura, the
thought thereof almost drove him mad. The deceit which had been
practised upon him had taught him to entertain hopes, and to pursue
objects which he never would have dreamed of, had it not been for
that deceit. It had made him throw open his heart to the strongest of
all affections, it had made him give himself up entirely to ardent
and passionate love, from which he would have fled as from his bane,
had he known what was now told to him. He had been made also the
instrument of basely deceiving others. He knew that the Duke would
never have heard of such a thing as his marriage with Lady Laura; he,
knew that in all probability he would never have admitted him into
any extraordinary intimacy with his family, if he had not firmly
believed that he was anything but that which he was now proved to be.
He did not know, but he doubted much whether Laura, knowing her
father's feelings upon such a subject, would ever have thought of him
otherwise than as an ordinary acquaintance. He knew not, he could not
tell, whether she herself might not upon that subject entertain the
same feelings as the Duke. But what would be their sensa