At length all the arrangements were completed;--Charles handed his Perdita into the vehicle--manifested the same politeness towards the old mother--and then entered it himself. Mrs. Fitzhardinge had placed herself with her back to the horses, on an imperious sign from Perdita to that effect;--so that the young couple were next to each other on the same seat. The post-chaise rolled rapidly away from Suffolk Street, and passed down Whitehall towards Westminster Bridge. So long as the wheels rattled over the stones, but little conversation took place inside the vehicle,--though Charles and Perdita conveyed to each other many tender assurances by means of the eloquent language of the eyes and the pressure of hands. When, however, the chaise emerged from the more crowded, thoroughfares of the metropolis, and entered upon the Dover Road, the travelling party were enabled to discourse at ease. The day was very sultry;--but the upper part of the barouche was now thrown open; and the speed at which they travelled, created a current of air that mitigated the intensity of the heat. However, Perdita put up her parasol; and as the faces of the happy pair were not very far apart, the silk canopy, circumscribed though it were, shaded those fine countenances which really seemed made to be side by side with each other,--both being so handsome! For a short time the conversation was general amongst the three:--gradually, however, Mrs. Fitzhardinge was, as it were, excluded from its range--not rudely so,--but because it became of a tender description between the young gentleman and her daughter;--and then it languished somewhat, inasmuch as the old woman was a restraint upon them. At length there was a pause altogether; but still Charles and Perdita felt no weariness in each other’s society. They gazed on each other--drinking draughts of love in each other’s looks,--and often pressing each other’s hands For Perdita really loved the young man,--loved him with a deep and ardent affection, of which however sensuality formed no inconsiderable portion. Nevertheless, she _did_ love him after the fashion of her own heart;--and thus to some extent the snarer had become ensnared! It was in a humour of melting and voluptuous languor, that, suddenly breaking the silence noticed above, Perdita said in her soft, dulcet tones, “Charles, how delicious is it to travel in this manner! Do you know that I feel as if I should like you to repeat to me a piece of poetry--or tell me some interesting tale--for it is so sweet to hear the sound of your voice. But if you thus gratify my caprice--this whim of the moment--let the theme of your recitation be love!” “I will endeavour to please you, my charmer,” returned the young man;--“and at this moment I bethink me of a Love Story that I wrote myself some few years ago--one day, when the mania for scribbling suddenly seized upon me.”