Delaware; or, The Ruined Family. Vol. 3James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
General
Delaware; or, The Ruined Family. Vol. 3
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
Fiction
"This is very foolish of me," thought he, as he rode along the park
wall. "I shall find no one up, and they will all think me mad." But at
that moment, as he looked over the low wall and up one of the long
alleys, he caught a view of two persons crossing the farther extremity
of it; and he was instantly satisfied that there were other wakeful
people in the world as well as himself. "It is Blanche and her
brother," he thought; and, riding up to the court, he flung his bridle
to a boy who was standing there, and without farther enquiry hastened
into the park. The wood was somewhat labyrinthine; but Beauchamp had
observed the direction taken by the figures he had seen, and following
one of the cross alleys, he soon entered that wherein he had beheld
them, and in which he found that they were still walking slowly on,
about a hundred yards before him, unconscious that there was any one
in the park but themselves.
As Captain Delaware was speaking eagerly and loud, Beauchamp, to avoid
overhearing his conversation with his sister, hastened forward,
pronouncing his name, and was almost immediately by their side. He was
greeted by both with evident pleasure; but upon Blanche's cheek,
though it was much paler than it had been in England, there was still
that flickering blush, on which we have already written a long
discussion.
After their first meeting was over, and Beauchamp had explained that
his sister would be there in about an hour, of course all three, as
they took a step or two slowly forward, felt themselves rather
awkward. But William Delaware was fond of cutting Gordian knots; and
the next moment, after a silent smile as he glanced first at his
cousin and then at Blanche, he abruptly let her arm slip from his own,
and, looking gaily into Beauchamp's face, he said, "Here, Henry, give
Blanche your arm, while I go to tell my father that you are here."
His sister looked at him almost reproachfully, and proposed that they
should all return; but Captain Delaware stayed not to listen, and the
next moment she stood alone with Henry Beauchamp, with her trembling
hand laid upon her lover's arm. Heaven knows what they said, for I am
sure I do not; but doubtless it was something very extraordinary, for,
ere they had taken two steps forward, Beauchamp woke, and detected
Blanche Delaware calling him, "My lord."
"My lord!" he repeated. "My lord! Is such the cold title by which I am
alone to be called? Oh, Blanche!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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