 from the
unmerited aspersions which it bore. But when I arrived in London, and
hastened to Berkley-Square, I heard that Lord and Lady Montreville,
together with Lady Frances Crofts, her husband, and Lord Delamere, had
gone all together to Audley Hall, immediately after his return from
Ireland. Thither, therefore, I went also.'

'Generous, considerate Godolphin!' sighed Emmeline to herself.

'Tho' related, by my brother's marriage, to the family of the Marquis of
Montreville, I was a stranger to every member of it but Lord Delamere.
He was gone to dine out; and in the rest of the family I observed an air
of happiness and triumph, which Lord Montreville informed me was
occasioned by the marriage which was intended soon to take place between
his son and Miss Otley; whose immense fortune, and near relationship to
his mother's family, had made such a marriage particularly desirable. I
was glad to hear he was likely to be happy; but it was not therefore the
less necessary to clear up the error into which he had fallen. On his
coming home, he appeared pleased and surprised to see me; but I saw in
his looks none of that satisfaction which was so evident in those of the
rest of the house.

'As soon as we were alone, he said to me--"You see me, Mr. Godolphin, at
length taken in the toils. Immediately after leaving Lough Carryl, I
received a letter from a person in London, whom I had employed for that
purpose, which informed me that he heard, at the office of the agent to
Fitz-Edward's regiment, that he was certainly to be in town in a few
days. He named, indeed, the exact time; and I, who imagined that pains
had been taken to keep us from meeting, determined to return to England
instantly, that he might not again avoid me. On reaching London,
however, I found that the intelligence I had received was wholly
unfounded, and originated in the mistake of a clerk in the agent's
office. None knew where Fitz-Edward was, or when he would return; and
though I wrote to enquire at Rouen, where I imagined the residence of
Miss Mowbray might induce him to remain, I have yet had no answer. The
entreaties and tears of my mother prevailed on me to come down hither;
and reckless of what becomes of me, since Emmeline is undoubtedly lost
to me for ever, I have yielded to the remonstrance of my father and the
prayers
