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If it had been possible for Alban to allude to the anonymous letter, he might have owned that his first impulse had led him to destroy it, and to assert his confidence in Emily by refusing Mr. Wyvil's invitation. But try as he might to forget them, the base words that he had read remained in his memory. Irritating him at the outset, they had ended in rousing his jealousy.
On sofas facing each other sit the two remaining guests, who have not joined the elders at the card-table in another room. They are both men. One of them is drowsy and middle-aged happy in the possession of large landed property: happier still in a capacity for drinking Mr. Wyvil's famous port-wine without gouty results. The other gentleman ah, who is the other?
Cecilia's suspense began to grow unendurable: she looked to Mirabel for comfort, and found none. His office was to console, and his capacity for performing that office was notorious among his admirers; but he failed to present himself to advantage, when Mr. Wyvil's lovely daughter had need of his services.
Mirabel ought not to meet or why should Miss Jethro have been so very earnest about it?" "Miss Jethro doesn't intend us to know why, Cecilia. It will perhaps come out in time. Wait for time." Left together, the girls discussed the course which Alban would probably take, on receiving Mr. Wyvil's invitation.
Mirabel is very nice," she admitted; "but I wouldn't marry him. Would you?" Emily secretly compared Alban with Mirabel. "Not for the world!" she answered. The next day was the day of Mirabel's departure. His admirers among the ladies followed him out to the door, at which Mr. Wyvil's carriage was waiting. Francine threw a nosegay after the departing guest as he got in.
At the end of the week, he had arranged to return to Vale Regis for his Sunday duty; engaging to join his friends again at Monksmoor on the Monday following. That rash promise, there could be no further doubt about it, must not be fulfilled. He had arrived at this resolution, when the terrible activity of Mr. Wyvil's bow was suspended by the appearance of a third person in the room.
Mirabel with a frying pan in his hand, and never have tasted the only good dish at our luncheon." Mirabel tried vainly to adopt his companion's easy tone. Now that he was alone with her, the doubts that Francine had aroused shook the prudent resolution at which he had arrived in the garden. He ran the risk, and told Emily plainly why he had returned to Mr. Wyvil's house.
Miss Darnaway was recalled to the nursery at home. The old squire who did justice to Mr. Wyvil's port-wine went away next, having guests to entertain at his own house. A far more serious loss followed. The three dancing men had engagements which drew them to new spheres of activity in other drawing-rooms.
Do not dismiss me thus, or my death will lie at your door." "I should be sorry for that," she replied; "but, inexperienced as I am, I feel this is not the language of real regard, but of furious passion." A dark shade passed over Wyvil's handsome features, and the almost feminine beauty by which they were characterized gave place to a fierce and forbidding expression.
Under that delusive influence, he persuaded himself that he had acted, in the first instance, without due consideration. It was surely his interest it might even be his duty to go to Mr. Wyvil's house, and judge for himself. After some last wretched moments of hesitation, he had decided on effecting a compromise with his own better sense, by consulting Miss Ladd.
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