Part 30 (1/2)

my dear Glas...o...b..ry, you know not what happiness I experience in the thought that she will soon be my daughter.'

Glas...o...b..ry could not refrain from sighing. He took up the pencil and touched her drawing.

'Do you know, dear Glas...o...b..ry,' resumed Sir Ratcliffe, 'I had little hope in our late visitation. I cannot say I had prepared myself for the worst, but I antic.i.p.ated it. We have had so much unhappiness in our family, that I could not persuade myself that the cup was not going to be dashed from our lips.'

'G.o.d is merciful,' said Glas...o...b..ry.

'You are his minister, dear Glas...o...b..ry, and a worthy one. I know not what we should have done without you in this awful trial; but, indeed, what could I have done throughout life without you?'

'Let us hope that everything is for the best,' said Glas...o...b..ry.

'And his mother, his poor mother, what would have become of her? She never could have survived his loss. As for myself, I would have quitted England for ever, and gone into a monastery.'

'Let us only remember that he lives,' said Glas...o...b..ry.

'And that we shall soon all be happy,' said Sir Ratcliffe, in a more animated tone. 'The future is, indeed, full of solace. But we must take care of him; he is too rapid in his movements. He has my father's blood in him, that is clear. I never could well make out why he left Bath so suddenly, and rushed down in so strange a manner to this place.'

'Youth is impetuous,' said Glas...o...b..ry.

'It was lucky you were here, Glas...o...b..ry.'

'I thank G.o.d that I was,' said Glas...o...b..ry, earnestly; then checking himself, he added, 'that I have been of any use.'

'You are always of use. What should we do without you? I should long ago have sunk. Ah! Glas...o...b..ry, G.o.d in his mercy sent you to us.'

'See here,' said Katherine, entering, her fair cheek glowing with animation, 'only dahlias, but they will look pretty, and enliven his room. Oh! that I might write him a little word, and tell him I am here!

Do not you think I might, Mr. Glas...o...b..ry?'

'He will know that you are here to-day,' said Glas...o...b..ry.

'To-morrow-----'

'Ah! you always postpone it,' said Miss Grandison, in a tone half playful, half reproachful; 'and yet it is selfish to murmur. It is for his good that I bear this bereavement, and that thought should console me. Heigho!'

Sir Ratcliffe stepped forward and kissed his niece. Glas...o...b..ry was busied on the drawing: he turned away his face.

Sir Ratcliffe took up his gun. 'G.o.d bless you, dear Kate,' he said; 'a pleasant drive and a choice sketch. We shall meet at dinner.'

'At dinner, dear uncle; and better sport than yesterday.'

'Ha! ha!' said Sir Ratcliffe. 'But Armine is not like Grandison. If I were in the old preserves, you should have no cause to jeer at my sportsmans.h.i.+p.'

Miss Grandison's good wishes were prophetic: Sir Ratcliffe found excellent sport, and returned home very late, and in capital spirits. It was the dinner-hour, and yet Katherine and Glas...o...b..ry had not returned.

He was rather surprised. The shades of evening were fast descending, and the distant lawns of Armine were already invisible; the low moan of the rising wind might be just distinguished; and the coming night promised to be raw and cloudy, perhaps tempestuous. Sir Ratcliffe stood before the crackling fire in the dining-room, otherwise in darkness, but the flame threw a bright yet glancing light upon the Snyders, so that the figures seemed really to move in the s.h.i.+fting shades, the eye of the infuriate boar almost to emit sparks of rage, and there wanted but the shouts of the huntsmen and the panting of the dogs to complete the tumult of the chase.

Just as Sir Ratcliffe was antic.i.p.ating some mischance to his absent friends, and was about to steal upon tip-toe to Lady Armine, who was with Ferdinand, to consult her, the practised ear of a man who lived much in the air caught the distant sound of wheels, and he went out to welcome them.

'Why, you are late,' said Sir Ratcliffe, as the phaeton approached the house. 'All right, I hope?'

He stepped forward to a.s.sist Miss Grandison. The darkness of the evening prevented him from observing her swollen eyes and agitated countenance.