Mrs. Beaumont, alarmed beyond conception, suddenly put her hand before Mr. Palmer’s mouth, to prevent him from finishing his sentence, and exposing the whole of her shameful duplicity to her daughter. “Absolutely I must, and do hereby interpose my maternal authority, and forbid all agitating explanations whilst Amelia is in her present state. Dr. Wheeler says she is terribly feverish. Come, Mr. Palmer, I must carry you off by force, and from me you shall have all the explanations and all the satisfaction you can require.” “Well,” said Mr. Palmer, “good bye for the present, my little Amelia, my darling little Amelia! I am so delighted to find that Captain Walsingham’s the man, and so glad you have no mysteries: be well, be well soon. I am so pleased, so happy, that I am as unruly as a child, and as easily managed. You see, how I let myself be turned out of the room.” “Not turned out, only carried out,” said Mrs. Beaumont, who never, even in the most imminent perils, lost her polite presence of mind. Having thus carried off Mr. Palmer, she was in hopes that, in the joyful confusion of his mind, he would he easily satisfied with any plausible explanation. Therefore she dexterously fixed his attention on the future, and adverted as slightly as possible to the past. “Now, my good sir, congratulate me,” said she, “on the prospect I have of happiness in such a son-in-law as Captain Walsingham, if it be indeed true that Captain Walsingham is really attached to Amelia. But, on the other hand, what shall we do if there is any truth in the story of the Spanish lady? Oh, there’s the difficulty! Between hope and fear, I am in such a distracted state at this moment, I hardly know what I say. What shall we do about the Spanish lady?” “Do, my dear madam! we can do nothing at all in that case: but I will hope the best, and you’ll see that he will prove a constant man at last. In the mean time, how was all that about Sir John Hunter, and what are you to do with him?” “Leave that to me; I will settle all that,” cried Mrs. Beaumont. “But I hope the poor man, though I don’t like him, has not been jilted?” “No, by no means; Amelia’s incapable of that. You know she told you just now that she never liked him.” “Ay; but I think, madam, you told me, that she _did_,” said Mr. Palmer, sticking to his point with a decided plainness, which quite disconcerted Mrs. Beaumont. “It was all a mistake,” said she, “quite a mistake; and I am sure you rejoice with me that it was so: and, as to the rest--past blunders, like past misfortunes, are good for nothing but to be forgotten.”