of the still-room, and queen of the pantry)
Mistress Deborah Debbitch should reign housekeeper at the Castle, and
extend, perhaps, the crown-matrimonial to Lance Outram, provided he was
not become too old, too fat, or too fond of ale.

Such were the soothing visions under the influence of which the dame
connived at an attachment, which lulled also to pleasing dreams, though
of a character so different, her charge and her visitant.

The visits of the young angler became more and more frequent; and the
embarrassed Deborah, though foreseeing all the dangers of discovery, and
the additional risk of an explanation betwixt Alice and Julian, which
must necessarily render their relative situation so much more delicate,
felt completely overborne by the enthusiasm of the young lover, and was
compelled to let matters take their course.

The departure of Julian for the continent interrupted the course of
his intimacy at the Black Fort, and while it relieved the elder of its
inmates from much internal apprehension, spread an air of languor and
dejection over the countenance of the younger, which, at Bridgenorth's
next visit to the Isle of Man, renewed all his terrors for his
daughter's constitutional malady.

Deborah promised faithfully she should look better the next morning, and
she kept her word. She had retained in her possession for some time a
letter which Julian had, by some private conveyance, sent to her
charge, for his youthful friend. Deborah had dreaded the consequences
of delivering it as a billet-doux, but, as in the case of the dance, she
thought there could be no harm in administering it as a remedy.

It had complete effect; and next day the cheeks of the maiden had a
tinge of the rose, which so much delighted her father, that, as he
mounted his horse, he flung his purse into Deborah's hand, with the
desire she should spare nothing that could make herself and his daughter
happy, and the assurance that she had his full confidence.

This expression of liberality and confidence from a man of Major
Bridgenorth's reserved and cautious disposition, gave full plumage to
Mistress Deborah's hopes; and emboldened her not only to deliver another
letter of Julian's to the young lady, but to encourage more boldly and
freely than formerly the intercourse of the lovers when Peveril returned
from abroad.

At length, in spite of all Julian's precaution, the young Earl became
suspicious of his frequent solitary fishing parties;