 met
with on his return home did not contribute to relieve him; he found that
no intelligence had been received of Delamere; and Lady Montreville
beset him with complaints and reproaches. The violence of her passions
had, for some months, subjected her to fits; and the evasion of her son,
and her total ignorance of what was become of him, had kept her in
perpetual agony during Lord Montreville's absence. His return after so
successless a journey encreased her sufferings, and she was of a temper
not to suffer alone, but to inflict on others some part of the pain she
felt herself.

Lord Montreville attempted in vain to appease and console her. Nothing
but some satisfactory account of Delamere had the least chance of
succeeding; and his Lordship, who now supposed that Delamere and
Emmeline were concealed in the neighbourhood of London, determined to
persevere in every means of discovering them.

For this purpose he had again recourse to the Crofts'; and Sir Richard
and both his sons readily undertook to assist him in his search, and
particularly the elder undertook it with the warmest zeal.

This young man inherited all the cunning of his father, together with a
coolness of temper which supplied the place of solid understanding and
quick parts; since it always gave him time to see where his interest
lay, and steadiness to pursue it. By incessant assiduity he had acquired
the confidence of Lady Montreville, to whom his attention and attendance
were become almost necessary.

Her Ladyship never dreamed that a man of his rank could lift his eyes to
either of her daughters, and therefore encouraged his constant
attendance on them both; while Crofts was too sensible of the value of
such an alliance not to take advantage of the opportunities that were
incessantly afforded him.

Lady Montreville had repeatedly declared, that if Delamere married
Emmeline all that part of the fortune which she had a right to give away
should be the property of her eldest daughter. This was upwards of six
thousand pounds a year; and whether this ever happened or not, Crofts
knew that what was settled on younger children, which must at all events
be divided between the two young ladies, would make either of them a
fortune worth all attempts, independent of the connection he would form
by it with Lord Montreville, who now began to make a very considerable
figure in the political world.

With these views, Crofts had for near two years incessantly applied
himself to conciliate the good opinion of the whole family, with so much
art that nobody suspected his designs. The slight and contemptuous
treatment he had always received from Delamere, he had affected to pass
by with
