Camilla again bent over the flowers; but it was not to scent their fragrance; she sought only a hiding place for her eyes, which were gushing with tears; and though she wished to fly a thousand miles off, she had not courage to take a single step, nor force to trust her voice with the shortest reply. 'You will not speak? yet you do not deny that you have some uneasiness?--Could I give it but the smallest relief, how fortunate I should think myself!--And is it quite impossible?--Do you forbid me to ask what it is?--forbid me the indulgence even to suggest----' 'Ask nothing! suggest nothing! and think of it no more!' interrupted Camilla, 'if you would not make me quite----' She stopt suddenly, not to utter the word unhappy, of which she felt the improper strength at the moment it was quivering on her lips, and leaving her sentence unfinished, abruptly walked away. Edgar could not presume to follow, yet felt her conquest irresistible. Her self-denial with regard to Mrs. Arlbery won his highest approbation; her compliance with his wishes convinced him of her esteem; and her distress, so new and so unaccountable, centered every wish of his heart in a desire to solace, and to revive her. To obtain this privilege hastened at once and determined his measures; he excused himself, therefore, from walking, and went instantly to his chamber, to reclaim, by a hasty letter to Dr. Marchmont, his procrastinating promise. CHAPTER II _A Pro and a Con_ With a pen flowing quick from feelings of the most generous warmth, Edgar wrote the following letter: _To Dr._ Marchmont. Accuse me not of precipitance, my dear Doctor, nor believe me capable of forgetting the wisdom of your suggestions, nor of lightly weighing those evils with which your zeal has encompassed me, though I write at this instant to confess a total contrariety of sentiment, to call back every promise of delay, and to make an unqualified avowal, that the period of caution is past! Camilla is not happy--something, I know not what, has disturbed the gay serenity of her bosom: she has forbid me to enquire the cause;--one way only remains to give me a claim to her confidence.--O Doctor! wonder not if cold, tardy, suspicious--I had nearly said unfeeling, caution, shrinks at such a moment, from the rising influence of warmer sympathy, which bids me sooth her in distress, shield her from danger, strengthen all her virtues, and participate in their emanations!