 try to stop the wind.'

The agitation and uneasiness of Emmeline encreased rather than subsided.
She looked so pale, and with so much difficulty drew her breath, that
the women were alarmed least she should faint: and one of them persuaded
her to swallow something, while the other ran out to see if the person
who had so terrified her was yet in sight. But no traces of him were
visible: and after a few moments, Emmeline recalling her presence of
mind, and feeling proudly conscious of her own innocence and integrity,
recovered in some degree her spirits and resolution.

That Delamere should be in England did not greatly astonish tho' it
grieved her; but that he should have conceived such strange suspicions
of her and Fitz-Edward, equally surprised and distressed her; since,
had she an opportunity of undeceiving him, which he did not seem willing
to allow her, she could not relate the truth but by betraying the
confidence of her unfortunate friend, and embittering that life she had
incurred such hazards to preserve. As soon as she had apparently
recovered from the shock of this abrupt intrusion, she was desirous of
returning to Woodfield; anxious to know if Delamere had been there, or
by what means he had been enabled to find her at the cottage in the
forest. The women, who fancied the gentleman they had seen was a lunatic
who might lay in wait to hurt her on her way home, would not suffer her
to set out 'till they had called a woodcutter from the forest to
accompany her. Then, slowly and with difficulty, she returned home;
where she heard from Mrs. Stafford that Delamere had neither been there
or sent thither. This information encreased her wonder and her disquiet.
She related to Mrs. Stafford the distressing interview of the morning;
who, having seen frequent instances of those excesses of which Delamere
was capable, heard the relation with concern and apprehension.







Some days were passed by Emmeline in painful conjectures on what
measures Delamere would take, and in uncertainty what she ought to do
herself. Sometimes she thought of writing to Lord Montreville: but
against that Mrs. Stafford remonstrated; representing, that as she was
undoubtedly the injured person, in having been insulted by suspicions so
unworthy, she should leave it wholly to Delamere to discover and recant
his error; which, if he refused on cooler reflection to do, she would be
fortunate in escaping from an engagement with a man who had so little
command of his own temper, so little reliance on her principles, as to
be driven on a mere suspicion into rudeness and insult.

Greatly
