 his Lordship (who had impatiently followed the
servant up stairs) entered the room.

Delamere, immovable behind Emmeline's chair, was the first object that
struck him.

He had hoped that her residence was yet unknown to his son; and
surprise, vexation, and anger, were marked in his countenance and
attitude.

'Miss Mowbray!' (advancing towards her) 'is it thus you fulfil the
promise you gave me? And you, Mr. Delamere--do you still obstinately
persist in this ridiculous, this unworthy attachment?'

'I left you, my Lord,' answered Delamere, 'without deceiving you as to
my motives for doing so. I came in search of Miss Mowbray. By a
fortunate accident I found her. I have never dissimulated; nor ever mean
it in whatever relates to her. Nothing has prevented my making her
irrevocably mine, but her too scrupulous adherence to a promise _she_
ought never to have given, and which your _Lordship_ ought never to have
extorted.'

Emmeline, gentle as she was, had yet that proper spirit which conscious
worth seldom fails of inspiring: and knowing that she had already
sacrificed much to the respect she thought Lord Montreville entitled to,
she was hurt at finding, from his angry and contemptuous tone, as well
as words, that she was condemned unheard, and treated with harshness
where she deserved only kindness and gratitude.

The courage of which her first surprise had deprived her, was restored
by these sensations; and she said, with great coolness, yet with less
timidity than usual, 'my Lord, I have yet done nothing in violation of
the promise I gave you. But the moment your Lordship doubts my adherence
to it, from that moment I consider it as dissolved.'

Delamere, encouraged by an answer so flattering to his hopes, now
addressed himself to his father, who was by this time seated; and spoke
so forcibly of his invincible attachment, and his determined purpose
never to marry any other woman, that the resolution of Lord Montreville
was shaken, and would perhaps have given way, if the violent and
clamorous opposition of his wife on one hand, and the ambitious projects
and artful advice of Sir Richard Crofts on the other, had not occurred
to him. He commanded himself so far as not to irritate Delamere farther,
by reflections on the conduct of Emmeline, which he found would not be
endured; and trying to stifle his feelings under the dissimulation of
the courtier, he heard with patience all he had to urge. He even
answered him with temper; made an apology to Emmeline
