Puslapio vaizdai
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inasmuch as there was such an instinctive hatred in me to his person, that, like some people who have an uncomfortable sensation if a cat be in the room, whether visible or not, I could always detect his

presence.

Sir Maurice replied with a bitter smile. "It would be well for that youth to keep out of his way; though he could scarcely suppose that his rival, if he called himself such, could have tamely overheard the disparaging mention of his own name, and have seen his mistress wooed by another, without an appeal to violence."

We now, for many days, resumed our monotonous way of life; Lord Berkeley requiring our presence one way or other, so much so as to leave no time at our own disposal. My observations, consequently, were chiefly confined to proceedings immediately within the castle.

One thing only struck me at the present moment very forcibly; and that was, the retired

way in which her Ladyship lived; seldom dining in public, rarely leaving her own apartments, and never seeming to enjoy a pursuit in common with her husband. Old friends and supporters of the family, who came purposely to see her, were either denied access or very coldly received; and old Harold who had long been privileged to range in freedom through every room in the castle, and whose well-known scratch on the outside of a door had ever been an indisputable signal for admittance, had been forbidden to make his appearance in any other place than the immediate precincts of his Lord.

In short, it was evident to me, that things did not go on smoothly; or, if they did appear to do so, it was only like the placidity which often pervades the surface of an unfathomable depth of water, which in reality teems with greater danger to the unpractised swimmer, than the more brawling and angry looking shallows.

It was not many days after the period to which I have been referring, that her Ladyship left the castle for Cirencester; and though I was well aware that circumstances might have been better, still I little thought that she quitted that ancient gateway for the last time.

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TIME now hung heavily on my hands. The three brothers were every day engaged either in transacting family affairs, or in executing commissions from the crown, relating to the state of the Forest of Dean, and for the general security of the peace of the county at large; though from the temper and juxta position of their enemies, they

themselves stood the best chance of being com

pelled to break it.

One morning, a letter was delivered from my father, stating it to be necessary for me to appear at Bristol, my presence being required on the settlement of some property; and having acquainted Sir Maurice with the fact, and obtained permission from his brother to leave the castle, I received a note from the former, with strict injunctions, to find some mode of delivering it into the hands of my cousin.

Once mounted, I was not long in accomplishing the distance to Aust; and arriving there before noon, with no small gratification discovered that all were from home, except Isabel and my mother. The latter met me at the gate, but the former was obviously in her own chamber; for, I saw Sylph, a little white terrier, given to her by Sir Maurice, and without which she never stirred, sitting in the sun on the window-seat, and who testified her pleasure in recognizing me from her exalted situation,

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