was gone, Edith entered the apartment. Lord
Evandale and she met with mutual embarrassment, which Lady Margaret, who
only knew in general that their union had been postponed by her
granddaughter's indisposition, set down to the bashfulness of a bride and
bridegroom, and, to place them at ease, began to talk to Lady Emily on
indifferent topics. At this moment Edith, with a countenance as pale as
death, muttered, rather than whispered, to Lord Evandale a request to
speak with him. He offered his arm, and supported her into the small
ante-room, which, as we have noticed before, opened from the parlour. He
placed her in a chair, and, taking one himself, awaited the opening of
the conversation.

"I am distressed, my lord," were the first words she was able to
articulate, and those with difficulty; "I scarce know what I would say,
nor how to speak it."

"If I have any share in occasioning your uneasiness," said Lord Evandale,
mildly, "you will soon, Edith, be released from it."

"You are determined then, my lord," she replied, "to run this desperate
course with desperate men, in spite of your own better reason, in spite
of your friends' entreaties, in spite of the almost inevitable ruin which
yawns before you?"

"Forgive me, Miss Bellenden; even your solicitude on my account must not
detain me when my honour calls. My horses stand ready saddled, my
servants are prepared, the signal for rising will be given so soon as I
reach Kilsyth. If it is my fate that calls me, I will not shun meeting
it. It will be something," he said, taking her hand, "to die deserving
your compassion, since I cannot gain your love."

"Oh, my lord, remain!" said Edith, in a tone which went to his heart;
"time may explain the strange circumstance which has shocked me so much;
my agitated nerves may recover their tranquillity. Oh, do not rush on
death and ruin! remain to be our prop and stay, and hope everything from
time!"

"It is too late, Edith," answered Lord Evandale; "and I were most
ungenerous could I practise on the warmth and kindliness of your feelings
towards me. I know you cannot love me; nervous distress, so strong as to
conjure up the appearance of the dead or absent, indicates a predilection
too powerful to give way to friendship and gratitude alone. But were it
otherwise, the die is now cast."

As he spoke thus, Cuddie burst into the room, terror and haste in his
countenance. "Oh, my lord, hide yoursell! they hae beset the outlets