Puslapio vaizdai
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"Be compofed, my lord," faid the good baronet, fhaking him affectionately by the hand; "my dear child will do "well, don't make yourself fo unhappy "-she will be very glad to fee you, I « affure you. She always names you

"with the greatest tenderness." "Dear injured excellence!" fobbed Monteith.

"She never made one complaint of "your staying fo long in London," continued fir William. "Sometimes, "indeed, the said, The house fits late "these turbulent times. Then, after "parliament broke up, you had fome "business to get through to ferve a * friend. The phyficians give us great

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hope of her to-day; and when you "are a little more compofed, I will let " her know that you are come. De"pend upon it, there will be no re"proaches."

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"Reproaches," reiterated Monteith, his eyes fparkling with indignation; "I cannot bear reproaches. Those of my own heart are fufficiently excruciating. I won't fee her. Order my " horses."

Fitzofborne, who had watched every expreflion with ferpent wiliness, here obferved to fir William, that travelling post with no rest, and scarcely any refreshment, had greatly deranged his friend's mind. "And I am fearful," faid he, " of fome bad effects from the "indifcretion of a servant, who hurried into lady Monteith's apartment to

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announce the earl's arrival."

No other hint was neceffary to remove fir William; while Monteith, with clenched fift, traverfed the room in an agony which increased every moment.

"Am I expected to beg pardon?" exclaimed he to Fitzofborne.

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"If you go on accufing yourself, and yielding to thefe extravagancies, you "invite impertinence, and muft expect "mortification. Lady Monteith must "be deftitute of the ruling paffion of "her fex, if he does not make you "feel that he knows her power over

you. Remorse, my lord, like religion, "is certainly a business between a man "and his own heart; yet, poffibly, as fir "William lectures you upon one head, "Mr. Evans may think it right to treat <c you with a little clerical freedom upon "the other."

"It is all known then," faid Monteith, throwing himself upon a fofa; " and I am to be ftared at by country "boors as a reprobate and a liber❝tine."

"Nothing is known, or can be "known, if you act with common propriety. Sir William only talks of

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your staying in town, and attending parliamentary bufinefs, when you "ought to have been nurfing your "wife in the country. Come, come, "Monteith, go and afk her how she does, without entirely abandoning all "fense of dignity. But that I fcorn to

probe a penetrated heart, I could re"mind you, that attention to my former "counfels would have prevented your " prefent pangs."

Lord Monteith fighed, and made another effort to vifit his countefs. The high tone of ecftacy to which his feelings had been elevated on first hearing of her fafety, was now confiderably lowered; and he almost wifhed that the feparating diftance which he had fo rapidly paffed were ftill between them, to protect him from the foul-harrowing fight of an injured, yet ftill beloved. object." If," faid he to himself, "fhe

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"utters one severe expreffion; if she "looks at me with lefs tenderness, nay "if the do but even betray a knowledge "of my folly, I am loft."

His apprehenfions, however, were groundless. Geraldine received him with that fmile of ineffable sweetness which generally irradiated her countenance. It was, indeed, no longer playfully animated; but its penfive languor conveyed even to his alarmed attention the idea of bodily fuffering, rather than of mental anguish. After thanking him for the folicitude he had expreffed, and which, fhe faid, her dear father had pathetically described, fhe congratulated him upon the birth of a fon, who though prematurely hurried into the world by her indifpofition, (here she ftifled a figh,) was yet, fhe was happy to find, likely to live.

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