other causes
than guilt, could account for signs so doubtful and minute.

"You shall soon know all," the last words which he had addressed to me,
yet rang in my ears, and most intensely did I anticipate the fulfilment
of this promise. My hopes too--those flatterers, so often the pleasing
antitheses of reason, whispered that this was not the pledge of a guilty
man; and yet he had said to Lady Roseville, that he did not wonder at
my estrangement from him: such words seemed to require a less favourable
construction than those he had addressed to me; and, in making
this mental remark, another, of no flattering nature to Glanville's
disinterestedness, suggested itself; might not his interference for me
with Lord Dawton, arise rather from policy than friendship; might it not
occur to him, if, as I surmised, he was acquainted with my suspicions,
and acknowledged their dreadful justice, that it would be advisable
to propitiate my silence? Such were among the thousand thoughts which
flashed across me, and left my speculations in debate and doubt.

Nor did my reflections pass unnoticed the nature of Lady Roseville's
affection for Glanville. From the seeming coldness and austerity of Sir
Reginald's temperament, it was likely that this was innocent, at least
in act; and there was also something guileless in the manner in which
she appeared rather to exult in, than to conceal, her attachment. True
that she was bound to no ties; she had neither husband nor children,
for whose sake love became a crime: free and unfettered, if she gave her
heart to Glanville, it was also allowable to render the gift lawful and
perpetual by the blessing of the church.

Alas! how little can woman, shut up in her narrow and limited circle
of duties, know of the wandering life and various actions of her
lover. Little, indeed, could Lady Roseville, when, in the heat of her
enthusiasm, she spoke of the lofty and generous character of Glanville,
dream of the foul and dastardly crime of which he was more than
suspected; nor, while it was, perhaps, her fondest wish to ally herself
to his destiny, could her wildest fancies anticipate the felon's fate,
which, if death came not in an hastier and kinder shape, must sooner or
later await him.

Of Thornton, I had neither seen nor heard aught since my departure from
Lord Chester's; that reprieve was, however, shortly to expire. I had
scarcely got into Oxford-street, in my way homeward, when I perceived
him crossi