What Will He Do with It? — Volume 08Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
General
What Will He Do with It? — Volume 08
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
English fiction -- 19th century
GEORGE.--"But is Lionel, with his quick intellect and busy imagination,
equally patient? Does he not guess at the truth? You have told him that
you do meditate a project which affects Guy Darrell, and required his
promise not to divulge to Darrell his visits in this house."
LADY MONTFORT--"He knows that Sophy's paternal grandfather was William
Losely. From your uncle he heard William Losely's story, and--"
GEORGE.--"My uncle Alban?"
LADY MOSTFORT.--"Yes; the Colonel was well acquainted with the elder
Losely in former days, and spoke of him to Lionel with great affection.
It seems that Lionel's father knew him also, and thoughtlessly involved
him in his own pecuniary difficulties. Lionel was not long a visitor
here before he asked me abruptly if Mr. Waife's real name was not Losely.
I was obliged to own it, begging him not at present to question me
further. He said then, with much emotion, that he had an hereditary debt
to discharge to William Losely, and that he was the last person who ought
to relinquish belief in the old man's innocence of the crime for which
the law had condemned him, or to judge him harshly if the innocence were
not substantiated. You remember with what eagerness he joined in your
search, until you positively forbade his interposition, fearing that
should our poor friend hear of inquiries instituted by one whom he could
not recognise as a friend, and might possibly consider an emissary of
his son's, he would take yet greater pains to conceal himself. But from
the moment that Lionel learned that Sophy's grandfather was William
Losely, his manner to Sophy became yet more tenderly respectful. He has
a glorious nature, that young man! But did your uncle never speak to you
of William Losely?"
"No. I am not surprised at that. My uncle Alban avoids 'painful
subjects.' I am only surprised that he should have revived a painful
subject in talk to Lionel. But I now understand why, when Waife first
heard my name, he seemed affected, and why he so specially enjoined me
never to mention or describe him to my friends and relations. Then
Lionel knows Losely's story, but not his son's connection with Darrell?"
"Certainly not. He knows but what is generally said in the world, that
Darrell's daughter eloped with a Mr. Hammond, a man of inferior birth,
and died abroad, leaving but one child, who is also dead. Still Lionel
does suspect,--my very injunctions of secrecy must make him more than
suspect, that the Loselys are somehow or other mixed up With Darrell's
family history. Hush! I hear his voice yonder--they approach."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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