le it by trying her voice: and such a little piece of
self-inflicted anguish speedily undid all Merthyr's work. He was patient
as one who tends a flower in the Spring. Georgiana marvelled that the
most sensitive and proud of men should be striving to uproot an image
from the heart of a simple girl, that he might place his own there. His
methods almost led her to think that his estimate of human nature was
falling low. Nevertheless, she was constrained to admit that there was
no diminution of his love for her, and it chastened her to think so.
"Would it be the same with me, if I--?" she half framed the sentence,
blushing remorsefully while she denied that anything could change
her great love for her brother. She had caught a glimpse of Wilfrid's
suppleness and selfishness. Contrasting him with Merthyr, she was
singularly smitten with shame, she knew not why.

The anticipation of the ball at Penarvon Castle had kindled very little
curiosity in Emilia's bosom. She seemed to herself a machine; "one
of the rest;" and looked more to see that she was still coveted by
Merthyr's eyes than at the glitter of the humming saloons. A touch
of her old gladness made her smile when Captain Gambier unexpectedly
appeared and walked across the dancers to sit beside her. She asked him
why he had come from London: to which he replied, with a most expressive
gaze under her eyelids, that he had come for one object. "To see me?"
thought Emilia, wondering, and reddening as she ceased to wonder.
She had thought as a child, and the neat instant felt as a woman. He
finished Merthyr's work for him. Emilia now thought: "Then I must be
worth something." And with "I am," she ended her meditation, glowing.
He might have said that she had all beauty ever showered upon woman: she
would have been led to believe him at that moment of her revival.

Now, Lady Charlotte had written to Georgiana, telling her that Captain
Gambier was soon to be expected in her neighbourhood, and adding that it
would be as well if she looked closely after her charge. When Georgiana
saw him go over to Emilia she did not remember this warning: but when
she perceived the sudden brilliancy and softness in Emilia's face after
the first words had fallen on her ears, she grew alarmed, knowing his
reputation, and executed some diversions, which separated them. The
captain made no effort to perplex her tactics, merely saying that he
should call in a day or two. Merthyr took to himself all