rk for him to do.
Whether it would please his father he did not stop to consider. As to the
justice of the act, let us say nothing.

On Ripton devolved the humbler task of grubbing for Sandoe's place of
residence; and as he was unacquainted with the name by which the poet now
went in private, his endeavours were not immediately successful. The
friends met in the evening at Lady Blandish's town-house, or at the
Foreys', where Mrs. Doria procured the reverer of the Royal Martyr, and
staunch conservative, a favourable reception. Pity, deep pity for
Richard's conduct Ripton saw breathing out of Mrs. Doria. Algernon
Feverel treated his nephew with a sort of rough commiseration, as a young
fellow who had run off the road.

Pity was in Lady Blandish's eyes, though for a different cause. She
doubted if she did well in seconding his father's unwise
scheme--supposing him to have a scheme. She saw the young husband
encompassed by dangers at a critical time. Not a word of Mrs. Mount had
been breathed to her, but the lady had some knowledge of life. She
touched on delicate verges to the baronet in her letters, and he
understood her well enough. "If he loves this person to whom he has bound
himself, what fear for him? Or are you coming to think it something that
bears the name of love because we have to veil the rightful appellation?"
So he responded, remote among the mountains. She tried very hard to speak
plainly. Finally he came to say that he denied himself the pleasure of
seeing his son specially, that he for a time might be put to the test the
lady seemed to dread. This was almost too much for Lady Blandish. Love's
charity boy so loftily serene now that she saw him half denuded--a thing
of shanks and wrists--was a trial for her true heart.

Going home at night Richard would laugh at the faces made about his
marriage. "We'll carry the day, Rip, my Lucy and I! or I'll do it
alone--what there is to do." He slightly adverted to a natural want of
courage in women, which Ripton took to indicate that his Beauty was
deficient in that quality. Up leapt the Old Dog; "I'm sure there never
was a braver creature upon earth, Richard! She's as brave as she's
lovely, I'll swear she is! Look how she behaved that day! How her voice
sounded! She was trembling... Brave? She'd follow you into battle,
Richard!"

And Richard rejoined: "Talk on, dear old Rip! She's my darling love,
whatever she is! And she is gloriously lovely. No eyes are like he