

She gave one from Lady Frances Crofts to his Lordship, in which, with
many details of her own affairs, was this sentence--


    'Before this, you have heard from my father or my mother that
  Lord Delamere has entirely recovered the use of his reason, and
  accepts of Miss Otley with her immense fortune. This change was
  brought about suddenly. It was settled in Norfolk, immediately
  after Lord Delamere's return from Ireland. I congratulate you and
  Lord W. on an event which I conclude _must_ to _both_ of you be
  pleasing. I have seen none of the family for near three weeks, as
  they are gone back into Norfolk; only my brother called for a
  moment, and seemed to be greatly hurried; by which, as well as from
  other circumstances, I conclude that preparations are making for
  the wedding immediately.'

  _May 18._


Lady Westhaven, who saw all hopes of being allied to the friend of her
heart for ever at an end--who believed that she had always cherished an
affection for her brother, and who supposed that in consequence of his
desertion she was left in mortifying dependance on Lord Montreville, was
infinitely hurt at this information. The letter from her father to
Emmeline confirmed all her apprehensions. There was a freezing civility
in the style, which gave no hopes of his alleviating by generosity and
kindness the pain which her Ladyship concluded Emmeline must feel; while
Lord Westhaven, knowing that to her whom he thus insulted with the
distant offer of fifty or an hundred pounds, he really was accountable
for the income of an estate of four thousand five hundred a year, for
near nineteen years, and that he still withheld that estate from her,
could hardly contain his indignation even before his wife; whom he
loved too well not to wish to conceal from her the ill opinion he could
not help conceiving of her father.

Emmeline, who was far from feeling that degree of pain which Lady
Westhaven concluded must penetrate her heart, was yet unwilling to shew
that she actually received with pleasure (tho' somewhat allayed by Lord
Montreville's coldness) an emancipation from her engagement. Of her
partiality to Godolphin, her friend had no idea; for Emmeline, too
conscious of it to be able to converse about him without fearing to
betray herself, had studiously avoided talking of him after their first
meeting; and she now imagined that Lady Westhaven, passionately fond of
her brother as she was, would think her indifference affected thro'
pique; and carried too far, if she did not receive the intelligence of
their eternal separation with some degree of concern
