Thus, all passed on as peaceably as he had requested, and Miss Milner had not betrayed one particle of frailty; when, the third day at dinner, some gentlemen of his acquaintance being at table, one of them said, “And so, my Lord, you absolutely set off on Tuesday morning?” This was Friday. Sandford and he both replied at the same time, “Yes.” And Sandford, but not Lord Elmwood, looked at Miss Milner when he spoke. Her knife and fork gave a sudden spring in her hand, but no other emotion witnessed what she felt. “Aye, Elmwood,” cried another gentleman at table, “you’ll bring home, I am afraid, a foreign wife, and that I shan’t forgive.” “It is his errand abroad, I make no doubt,” said another visitor. Before he could return an answer, Sandford cried, “And what objection to a foreigner for a wife? do not crowned heads all marry foreigners? and who happier in the married state than some kings?” Lord Elmwood directed his eyes to the side of the table, opposite to that where Miss Milner sat. “Nay,” (answered one of the guests, who was a country gentleman) “what do you say, ladies—do you think my Lord ought to go out of his own nation for a wife?” and he looked at Miss Milner for the reply. Miss Woodley, uneasy at her friend’s being thus forced to give an opinion upon so delicate a subject, endeavoured to satisfy the gentleman, by answering to the question herself: “Whoever my Lord Elmwood marries, Sir,” said Miss Woodley, “he, no doubt, will be happy.” “But what say you, Madam?” asked the visitor, still keeping his eyes on Miss Milner. “That whoever Lord Elmwood marries, he _deserves_ to be happy:” returned she, with the utmost command of her voice and looks; for Miss Woodley, by replying first, had given her time to collect herself. The colour flew to Lord Elmwood’s face, as she delivered this short sentence; and Miss Woodley persuaded herself, she saw a tear start in his eye. Miss Milner did not look that way. In an instant he found means to change the subject, but that of his journey still employed the conversation; and what horses, servants, and carriages he took with him, was minutely asked, and so accurately answered, either by himself or by Mr. Sandford, that Miss Milner, although she had known her doom before, till now had received no circumstantial account of it—and as circumstances increase or diminish all we feel, the hearing these things told, increased the bitterness of their truth.