Puslapio vaizdai
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"erred, it is from a mistaken judg"ment; and punish me as that crime "deferves. Yet, my ever beloved "friend! do not let your confidence

in your own difcernment lead you "into danger. It is not because I fuf"pect your virtue that I thus im"preffively warn you; but it is because "I confider you to be furrounded with "fnares which, without divine protection, no mortal can efcape; and "to that protection I commend you in "my most earnest prayers."

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Vanquished by this affectionate appeal, Geraldine raised her Lucy, and folded her in her arms. The reconciliation was as fincere as it was affecting. The countess protefted, that though fhe could not adopt her opinions of a man whom she had ftudied with unremitting attention, fhe yet gave entire credit to the fincerity of her motives;

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tives; and Miss Evans hoped, that the communication, which had fomewhat relieved her burdened mind, would not be entirely forgotten in the hours of calm reflection. They then parted, after mutually engaging to name this affecting fubject no more.

Mifs Evans's thoughts were diverted the next morning to a fubject yet more poignantly diftreffing, and which, as the matter-forrow, fwallowed up every other care. A letter from her father's housekeeper announced, that he was alarmingly ill, and requested her immediate presence at Powerfcourt. This letter flung her into fuch violent emotions, that she had not felf-command fufficient to reflect upon some very extraordinary circumstances which accompanied it. The ftyle and the writing were greatly fuperior to Mrs. Mary's ufual performances. This was, indeed, accounted

for

for in the poftcript, which stated, that being ashamed of her poor fcrawl, she had got the clerk to copy it, and to rectify the fpelling. The excufe was more fufpicious than the writing; for Mrs. Mary and the clerk were not upon good terms, and it feemed extraordinary, that a faithful confidential fervant should think of fuch minute explanations when a beloved master lay in the utmost danger, and requiring all her active fervices. Where too was Henry? Was it not natural for him to write to his Lucy? and how improbable, that he fhould permit another pen to transcribe his meffage that he wished her to return inftantly! The alarm which the letter excited prevented the confideration of thefe contradictory particulars. Mifs Evans was in the chaife on her return to Caernarvonshire in half an hour after it arrived; nor was it till her anxiety K 5 for

for her father was relieved by finding that the whole narrative was an infa mous impofition, that he began to be furprised at her own want of penetration in not immediately discovering it to be fo. A statement of this fact, which feemed to convey fome fresh indications of Fitzofborne's guilt was immediately difpatched to Monteith, and Henry Powerscourt undertook to be the courier. His generous heart braved every indignity and every danger; nor could even his Lucy's apprehenfive terrors diffuade him from defying the refentment of a man whom he believed to be capable of adding murder to his other crimes. The prefervation of his once-fondly loved, and ftill-tenderly esteemed Geraldine, overpowered all regard for his own perfonal fafety. But his generous intentions were frustrated by the events wich had happened at Monteith previous to his arrival.

CHAP. XXXIX.

O much deceiv'd, much failing, hapless Eve!
Of thy prefum'd return! event perverse?
Thou never from that hour in Paradife

Found't either fweet repaft or found repose;
Such ambush, laid among sweet flowers and fhades,
Waited with hellish rancour imminent

To intercept thy way, or fend thee back
Defpoil'd of innocence, of faith, of blifs !

MILTON.

THE diftrefs of Mifs Evans for her father's fuppofed illness had given a temporary diversion to lady Monteith's ideas; but they foon recurred to the contemplation of her own forrows. The affecting scene of the preceding evening, by reviving all her former tenderness, gave that importance to her friend's judgment of which it had been for fome time deprived; and while fhe recollected K 6

the

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