e favourable feelings towards
Clifford were his sagacious suspicions, or rather certainty, of Lucy's
attachment to her handsome deliverer; and he had at least sufficient
penetration to perceive that she was not likely to love him the less for
the night's adventure. To all this was added the tender recollection of
his wife's parting words; and the tears and tell-tale agitation of Lucy
in the carriage were sufficient to his simple mind, which knew not how
lightly maiden's tears are shed and dried, to confirm the prediction
of the dear deceased. Nor were the squire's more generous and kindly
feelings utterly unmixed with selfish considerations. Proud, but not
the least ambitious, he was always more ready to confer an honour
than receive one, and at heart he was secretly glad at the notion of
exchanging, as a son-in-law, the polished and unfamiliar Mauleverer for
the agreeable and social Clifford. Such in "admired disorder," were the
thoughts which rolled through the teeming brain of Joseph Brandon; and
before he had turned on his left side, which he always did preparatory
to surrendering himself to slumber, the squire had fully come to a
determination most fatal to the schemes of the lawyer and the hopes of
the earl.

The next morning, as Lucy was knitting

"The loose train of her amber-dropping hair"

before the little mirror of her chamber, which even through its dimmed
and darkened glass gave back a face which might have shamed a Grecian
vision of Aurora, a gentle tap at her door announced her father.
There was in his rosy and comely countenance that expression generally
characteristic of a man pleased with himself, and persuaded that he is
about to give pleasure.

"My dear child," said the squire, fondly stroking down the luxuriance of
his Lucy's hair, and kissing her damask cheek, "I am come to have some
little conversation with you. Sit down now, and (for my part, I love
to talk at my ease; and, by the by, shut the window, my love, it is
an easterly wind) I wish that we may come to a clear and distinct
understanding. Hem!--give me your hand, my child,--I think on these
matters one can scarcely speak too precisely and to the purpose;
although I am well aware (for, for my own part, I always wish to act
to every one, to you especially, my dearest child, with the greatest
consideration) that we must go to work with as much delicacy as
conciseness. You know this Captain Clifford,--'t is a brave youth, i