er feelings, which might be wrought into an advantageous
intercession on behalf of Julia. The General was evidently endeavoring to
keep his feelings within due bounds, before the decision of his niece
might render it proper for him to indulge in that affection for her, which
his eye plainly showed existed under the cover of his assumed manner.

It was an effort of great fortitude on the part of Julia to acquaint her
uncle with her resolution; but as it must be done, she seized a moment
after Mrs. Wilson had at some length defended her adhering to her present
faith, until religiously impressed with its errors, to inform him such was
her unalterable resolution. He heard her patiently, and without anger, but
in visible surprise. He had construed her summons to her house into a
measure preparatory to accepting his conditions; yet he betrayed no
emotion, after the first expression of his wonder: he told her distinctly,
a renunciation of her heresy was the only condition on which her father
would own her either as his heiress or his child. Julia deeply regretted
the decision, but was firm; and her friends left her to enjoy
uninterruptedly for one day, the society of so near a relative. During
this day every doubt as to the propriety of her conduct, if any yet
remained, was removed by a relation of her little story to her uncle; and
after it was completed, he expressed great uneasiness to get to London
again, in order to meet a gentleman he had seen there, under a different
impression as to his merits, than what now appeared to be just. Who the
gentleman was, or what these impressions were, Julia was left to
conjecture, taciturnity being a favorite property in the general.

Chapter XXXI.

The sun had just risen on one of the loveliest vales of Caernarvonshire,
as a travelling chaise and six swept up to the door of a princely mansion,
so situated as to command a prospect of the fertile and extensive domains,
the rental of which filled the coffers of its rich owner, having a
beautiful view of the Irish channel in the distance.

Everything around this stately edifice bespoke the magnificence of its
ancient possessors and the taste of its present master. It was irregular,
but built of the best materials, and in the tastes of the different ages
in which its various parts had been erected; and now in the nineteenth
century it preserved the baronial grandeur of the thirteenth, mingled with
the comforts of this later perio