Perdita rose from the sofa, and hastened from the room, kissing her hand with playful fondness to her lover as she crossed the threshold. Even that simple action on her part excited the most ravishing feelings in his soul;--for as she thus turned round for an instant ere the door closed behind her, his looks swept all the fulness--all the contours--all the rich proportions of her voluptuous form,--while the morning sun-light, rosy from the hues of the hangings through which it penetrated, shone on her beauteous countenance, giving splendour to the fine large eyes, freshness to the vermilion lips, and a halo to her glossy hair! She disappeared; and Charles, who had risen from his seat simultaneously with herself, advanced to the window. The street was quiet;--but the sounds of the rapid vehicles in Cockspur Street met his ears;--and he wondered whether the post-chaise were yet approaching the dwelling. This idea led him to ponder on the step which he was about to take;--and a sensation of sadness slowly crept upon him, as he reflected that he was on the point of leaving his home--abandoning his parents and friends! The recollection of his mother smote him--smote him painfully;--and yet he did not seek by inward, silent reasoning to improve this better state of feeling, and act upon its warnings. No:--with that perverseness which so frequently characterises those who are on the point of adopting a measure which they secretly know to be injudicious and unwisely precipitate--even if no worse,--he sought in sophistry and specious mental argument an apology for his conduct. Again he reminded himself that his parents had acted unnaturally towards him,--and that their uniform conduct in this respect had now been followed up by harshness, upbraidings, menaces, and _espionnage_, on the part of his father. Then he feasted his imagination with the thoughts of possessing Perdita:--in a few days she would be his--irrevocably his, and in a manner which would enable him to present her proudly to the world as his wedded wife. From this strain of meditations he glided into glorious, gorgeous, visions of future greatness:--the words, “My Lord,” and “Your Lordship,” only so recently addressed to him, sounded like delicious music in his ears;--and his painful reflections were subdued by the feelings of triumph now once more awakened within him. Love--ambition--hope,--all--all his yearnings, all his cravings were now on the point of being gratified: he should cast off that parental yoke which had latterly weighed so heavily upon him;--he was about to visit Paris--he would appear as a Viscount, and with a beauteous bride, in the sphere of fashion the most refined, elegance the most perfect, and civilisation the most consummate,--and he already fancied himself walking in the delicious gardens of the Tuileries, with Perdita--the observed of all observers--leaning fondly on his arm!