 will do to your's.'

The slightest contradiction was what Lady Montreville had never been
accustomed to bear patiently. The asperity therefore of this speech, and
the total rejection of her project, threw her into an agony of passion
which ended in an hysteric fit.

Lord Montreville, less moved than usual, committed her to the care of
her daughters and women, and continued to talk coolly to Crofts on the
subject they were before discussing.

After considering it in every point of view, he determined to leave
Delamere at present to his own reflections; only writing to him a calm
and expostulatory letter; such as, together with Emmeline's steadiness,
on which he now relied with the utmost confidence, might, he thought,
effect more than violent measures. His Lordship wrote also to Emmeline,
strongly expressing his admiration and regard, and his confidence and
esteem encreased her desire to deserve them.

Mrs. Stafford was now nearly recovered; and Delamere settled at his new
house, where he always returned at night, tho' he passed almost every
day at Woodfield.

His mornings were often occupied in those amusements of which he had
been so fond before his passion for Emmeline became the only business of
his life; and secure of seeing her continually, and of telling how he
loved her, he became more reasonable than he had hitherto been.

The letters, however, which now arrived from Lord Montreville, a little
disturbed his felicity. They gave Emmeline an opportunity to exhort him
to return to London--to make his peace with his father, and quiet the
uneasiness of Lady Montreville, which his Lordship represented as
excessive, and as fatal to _her_ health as to the peace of the whole
family.

Emmeline urged him by every tie of duty and affection to relieve the
anxiety of his family, and particularly to attend to the effect his
absence and disobedience had on the constitution of his mother, which
had long been extremely shaken. But to all her remonstrances, he
answered--'That he would not return, till Lady Montreville would promise
never to renew those reflections and reproaches which had driven him
from Audley-Hall; and to which he apprehended he should now be more than
ever exposed.'

As Emmeline could not pretend to procure such an engagement from her
Ladyship, all she could do was to inform Lord Montreville of his
objection, and to leave it to him to make terms between Delamere and his
mother.

Near a month had now elapsed since Emmeline's arrival at Woodfield; and
the returning serenity of her mind had restored to her countenance all
it's bloom
