 head, who then asked when
she heard of Delamere?

This question Emmeline had foreseen: but having predetermined not to
distress her unfortunate friend, by telling her into what difficulties
her attendance on her and her child had led her, and being shocked to
own herself the subject of suspicions so injurious as those Delamere had
dared to harbour, she calmly answered that Delamere was returned to
England, but that she had seen him only for a few moments.

'And did he not object,' enquired Lady Adelina, 'to your quitting
England, since he is himself returned to it?'

Emmeline, who could not directly answer this question, evaded it by
saying--

'My absence or my presence you know cannot hasten the period, 'till the
arrival of which our marriage cannot take place--_if_ it ever takes
place at all.'

'_If_ it ever takes place at all?' repeated Lady Adelina--'Does then any
doubt remain of it?'

'An affair of that sort,' replied Emmeline, assuming as much unconcern
as she could, 'is always doubtful where so many clashing interests and
opposite wishes are to be reconciled, and where so very young a man as
Mr. Delamere is to decide.'

'Do you suspect that he wavers then?' very earnestly asked Lady Adelina,
fixing her eyes on the blushing face of Emmeline.

'I really am not sure,' answered she--'you know my promise, reluctantly
given, was only conditional. I am far from being anxious to anticipate
by firmer engagements the certainty of it's being fulfilled; much better
contented I should be, if he yet took a few years longer to consider of
it. You, Lady Adelina,' continued she, smiling, 'are surely no advocate
for early marriages; and Mrs. Stafford is greatly averse to them. You
must therefore suppose that what my two friends have found inimical to
their happiness, I cannot consider as being likely to constitute mine.'

This speech had the effect Emmeline intended. It brought back the
thoughts of Lady Adelina from the uncertainties of her friend to her own
actual sorrows. She sighed deeply.

'You say truly,' said she. '_I_ have no reason to wish those I love may
precipitately form indissoluble engagements; nor _do_ I wish it. Would
to God _I_ had not been the victim of an hasty and unhappy marriage; or
that I had been the _only_ victim. Emmeline,' added she, lowering her
voice, now hardly audible, 'Emmeline, _may_ I ask?--
