 she saw too
evidently herself.

Fear for the future fate of her children, and regret to find that she
had no influence over her husband, together with the knowledge of
connections to which she had till a few months before been a stranger,
had given to Mrs. Stafford, whose temper was naturally extremely
chearful, that air of despondence, and melancholy cast of mind, which
Emmeline had remarked with so much concern on their first acquaintance.

To such a man as Mr. Stafford, the arrival of Delamere afforded novelty,
and consequently some degree of satisfaction. He took it into his head
to be extremely civil to him, and pressed him to continue some time at
his house; but Delamere well knew that Emmeline would be made unhappy by
his remaining more than one night; as Mr. Stafford entered however so
warmly into his interest, he begged of him to recollect whether there
was not any house to be let within a few miles of Woodfield.

Mr. Stafford instantly named a hunting seat of Sir Philip Carnaby's,
which he said would exactly suit him. It's possessor, whom some
disarrangement in his affairs had obliged to go abroad for a few years,
had ordered it to be let ready furnished, from year to year.

Delamere went the next morning to the attorney who let it; and making an
agreement for it, ordered in all the requisites for his immediate
residence; and, till it was ready, accepted Mr. Stafford's invitation to
remain at Woodfield.

Emmeline, who confined herself wholly to her friend's apartment, knew
nothing of this arrangement 'till it was concluded: and when she heard
it, remonstrance and objection were vain.

The illness of Mrs. Stafford, tho' it did not gain ground, was still
very alarming, and called forth, to a painful excess, that lively
sympathy which Emmeline felt for those she loved. She continued to
attend her with the tenderest assiduity; and after five days painful
suspence, had the happiness to find her out of danger, and well enough
to hear the relation Emmeline had to make of the involuntary elopement.

Mrs. Stafford advised her immediately to write to Lord Montreville;
which her extreme anxiety only had occasioned her so long to delay.







Lord Montreville and Sir Richard Crofts, after exhausting every mode of
enquiry at the end of their journey, without having discovered any
traces of the fugitives, returned to London. The uncertainty of what was
become of his son, and concern for the fate of Emmeline, made his
Lordship more unhappy than he had yet been: and the reception he
