t and
indignant at the tone of a letter which came on me so completely by
surprise. I knew, however, how much my father looked to my strict
obedience to every call of duty, and resolved that, come what would, I
should at once resume my position on the duke's staff.

These were but momentary reflections. My thoughts recurred at once to
where my heart was dwelling---with her whose very image lived within
me. Try how I would, I could think of no pleasure in which she took not
part, imagine no scheme of life in which she was not concerned. Ambition
had lost its charm; the path of glory I had longed to tread, I felt now
as nothing beside that heather walk which led me towards her; and if
I were to have chosen between the most brilliant career high station,
influence, and fortune could bestow, and the lowly condition of a
dweller in these wild mountain solitudes, I felt that not a moment of
hesitation or doubt would mark my decision. There was a kind of
heroism in the relinquishing all the blandishments of fortune, all the
seductions of the brilliant world, for one whose peaceful and humble
life strayed not beyond the limits of these rugged mountains; and this
had its charm. There were times when I loved to ask myself whether
Louisa Bellew would not, even amid all the splendour and display of
London life, be as much admired and courted as the most acknowledged
of beauty's daughters: now I turned rather to the thought of how far
happier and better it was to know that a nature so unhackneyed, a heart
so rich in its own emotions, was never to be exposed to the callous
collision of society and all the hardened hypocrisy of the world. My
own lot, too, how many more chances of happiness did it not present as
I looked at the few weeks of the past, and thought of whole years thus
gliding away, loving and beloved!

A kind of stir, and the sound of voices beneath my window, broke my
musings, and I rose and looked out. It proceeded from the young girl
and the country lad who formed the priest's household. They were talking
together before the door, and pointing in the direction of the highroad,
where a cloud of dust had marked the passage of some carriage--an event
rare enough to attract attention in these wild districts.

'And did his reverence say that the Captain was to be kept in bed till
he came back?'

'Ah, then, sure, he knew well enough,' said Mary, 'that the young man
would be up and off to the castle the moment he was able