scrupulous spirit the dear girl has, alone and
unassisted, to contend with. Yet if it be true, oh, why should she not
have written to me? Why not have enabled me to come to her defence? I
know not what to think. At all events, I shall, as a last resource, call
upon her father. I shall explain to him the risk he runs in marrying his
daughter to this man who is at once a fool and a scoundrel. But how can
I do so? Birney has not yet returned from France, and I have no proofs
on which to rest such serious allegations; nothing at present but bare
assertions, which her father, in the heat and fury of his ambition,
might not only disbelieve, but misinterpret. Be it so; I shall at
least warn him, take it as he will; and if all else should fail, I will
disclose to him my name and family, in order that he may know, at all
events, that I am no impostor. My present remonstrance may so far alarm
him as to cause the persecution against Lucy to be suspended for a
time, and on' Birney's return, we shall, I trust, be able to speak more
emphatically."

He accordingly sent for a chaise, into which he stepped and ordered the
driver to leave him at Sir Thomas Gourlay's and to wait there for him.

Lord Dunroe was at this period perfectly well aware that Birney's visit
to France was occasioned by purposes that boded nothing favorable to
his interests; and were it not for Lucy's illness, there is little doubt
that the marriage would, ere now, have taken place. A fortnight had
elapsed, and every day so completely filled him with alarm, that he
proposed to Sir Thomas Gourlay the expediency of getting the license at
once, and having the ceremony performed privately in her father's house.
To this the father would have assented, were it not that he had taken it
into his head that Lucy was rallying, and would soon be in a condition
to go through it, in the parish church, at least. A few days, he hoped,
would enable her to bear it; but if not, he was willing to make every
concession to his lordship's wishes. Her delicate health, he said, would
be a sufficient justification. At all events, both agreed that there
could be no harm in having the license provided: and, accordingly, upon
the morning of the stranger's visit, Sir Thomas and Lord Dunroe had just
left the house of the former for the Ecclesiastical Court, in Henrietta
street, a few minutes before his arrival. Sir Thomas was mistaken,
however, in imagining that his daughter's health was improvin