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O pride of the Tresilyans! that had tempted to sin so many of that haughty house, when you might have saved its fairest descendant, was it the time to falter and fail? She looked up piteously in her great extremity; there was a prayer for help in her eyes, but between them and heaven was interposed a stern bronze face, not a line of it softening.
Once only there was a chance of a skirmish the merest affair of outposts. Keene had been calling on the Tresilyans one evening, in the official capacity of bearer of a verbal message from Mrs. Molyneux. It was the simplest one imaginable; but as graver embassadors have done before him, liking his quarters he dallied over his mission.
An evil voice that had whispered perhaps in the ear of more than one of the "bitter, bad Tresilyans," seemed to murmur, "You, too, can die:" but Cecil was not yet so lost as to listen to the suggestion of the subtle fiend.
He paused, and his brow darkened strangely, and all his face changed, till it resembled more closely than it had often done the portraits of come of the "bitter, bad Tresilyans." "I suppose you mean well, Mr. Fullarton, but I'm not going to thank you. We can manage our affairs without your meddling; and if you're wise you'll leave us alone."
As he drove past the hotel where the Tresilyans lodged he looked up at the windows of their apartments, and was somewhat surprised to see no light there; but no suspicion of the truth crossed his mind. He had made all preparations for the intended flight with his habitual skill and foresight.
The gray manor-house guards its secrets well, though it has witnessed in its time sorrows and sins that might have wrung a voice from granite. Conscious of many broken hearts and blasted hopes, is the home of the Tresilyans of Tresilyan. I confess to a certain regret, as that graceful figure vanishes from the stage that never was worthy of her queen-like presence.
Not one mésalliance could be detected in the main line of the Tresilyans; but there must have been a blot somewhere, a link of base metal in the golden chain, of which an adulteress and her confessor could have told.
Mark Waring would have drained his heart's blood drop by drop to have lightened one throb of her agony, but he never thought of flinching from his purpose. "There are perils where the only safety lies in flight. You must leave this before Major Keene returns, and he returns to-morrow." Perhaps I have failed in making you understand one hereditary peculiarity of the Tresilyans.
Danvers was going to attempt one of her querulous remonstrances, but she happened to look at the face of her patroness. It wore an expression not often seen there; but she was wise enough to interpret it aright, and to guess that she had gone far enough. It was ever a dangerous experiment to trifle with the Tresilyans when their brows were bent.
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