“My dear Lady Julia!--yet let me call you dear this once--my hopes are gone!--even for your forgiveness I have no right to hope--but let me do you one piece of service--let me put your open temper on its guard. You flatter yourself that the secret you confided to me is not known to any body living but to your father--I have reason to believe that it is suspected, if not positively known, by several other persons in this castle.” “Impossible!” “I am certain, too certain, of what I say.” Lady Julia made a sudden stop; and, after a pause, exclaimed-- “Then farewell hope! and, with hope, farewell fear!” “My lady, my lord sent me again, for my lord’s very impatient for you, my lady,” said the same footman, returning. Lord Glistonbury met them in the hall.--“Why, Julia! where have you been all this time?” he began, in an imperious tone; but seeing Mr. Vivian, his brow grew smooth and his voice good-humoured instantly.--“Ha!--So! so!--Hey! well!--All right! all right!--Good girl! good girl!--Time for every thing--Hey! Mr. Vivian?--‘Que la solitude est charmante!’ as Voltaire says--Beg pardon for sending for you; but interruption, you know, prevents _têtes-à-têtes_ on the stage from growing tiresome; and the stage, they say, holds the mirror up to nature. But there’s no nature now left to hold the mirror up to, except in a few odd instances, as in my Julia here!--Where so fast, my blushing darling?” “I thought you wished, sir, that I should go to Lady Playdel and Sir James.” “Ay, ay, I sent for you to repeat those charming verses for them that I could not clearly remember.--Go up! go up!--We’ll follow you!--We have a word or two to say about something--that’s nothing to you.”