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Updated: June 11, 2025
He thought he recognized his own handwriting, and could stand no more. He rushed, in, and was going to speak to her; but she screamed, and no conjurer ever made a card disappear quicker than she did that letter, as she bounded away like a deer, and stood, blushing scarlet, and palpitating all over. Uxmoor was ashamed of his brusquerie. "What a brute I am to frighten you like this!" said he.
Consider, Uxmoor has title, wealth, everything to bestow with the wedding-ring. If he offers all that, and you don't offer all you have, how much more generous he looks to her than you do!" "In short, you think she will doubt my affection, if I don't ask her to share my poverty." "If you don't, and a rich man asks her to share his all, I'm sure she will. And so should I. Words are only words."
"Did he explain it to you?" asked Zoe, rather sharply. "No; but he said enough to make me think you are using him very hardly. To be sure, you have another string to your bow." "Oh, that is the interpretation you put." "It is the true one. Do you think you can make me believe you would have shied him so long if Lord Uxmoor had not been in the house?"
She led him to this, and his eyes sparkled with pleasure, and his homely but manly face lighted, and was elevated by the sympathy she expressed in these worthy objects. He could not help thinking: "What a Lady Uxmoor this would make! She and I and her brother might leaven the county." And all this time she would not even bestow a glance on Severne. She was not an angel.
"Yet you know my mind about it." "I know you forbade me to go for it in person: and I obeyed you, did I not?" "Yes, you did at the time." "I do now. You object to my going in person to Homburg. You know I was once acquainted with that lady, and you feel about her a little of what I feel about Lord Uxmoor; about a tenth part of what I feel, I suppose, and with not one-tenth so much reason.
Zoe was interested and sympathetic; Fanny listened, and gave Severne short answers. Severne felt dethroned. He was rather mortified, and a little uneasy, but too brave to show it. He bided his time. In the drawing-room Lord Uxmoor singled out Zoe, and courted her openly with respectful admiration. Severne drew Fanny apart, and exerted himself to amuse her. Zoe began to cast uneasy glances.
She rose, but did not go; she walked slowly toward the window; Uxmoor joined her: for he saw he was to have his answer from her mouth. Her bosom heaved a little, and her cheeks flushed. "Lord Uxmoor," she said, "you have done me the greatest honor any man can pay a woman, and from you it is indeed an honor.
Another woman has frightened him away from me. I have wasted my affections on a coward." Her bosom boiled with love, and contempt, and wounded pride; and her mind was tossed to and fro like a leaf in a storm. She began, by force of will, to give Uxmoor some encouragement; only, after it she writhed and wept.
Tears of mortified vanity were in her eyes; but she smiled through them at the glass; then dried them carefully, and went back to the dining-room radiant, to all appearance. Dinner was just served, and her brother, to do honor to the new-comer, waved his sister to a seat by Lord Uxmoor.
When Zoe turned to go, Uxmoor seized the opportunity, and drew up beside her, like a soldier falling into the ranks. Zoe felt hot; but as Severne took no open notice, she could not help smiling at the behavior of the fellows; and Uxmoor got his chance. Severne turned to Fanny with a wicked sneer. "Very well, my lord," said he; "but I have put a spoke in your wheel."
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