sh that intimacy that
has thrown over my existence a charm so inexpressible.' So saying, he
ventured to take her hand, and pressed it with devotion to his lips.

CHAPTER VI.

_Which Contains an Event Not Less Important Than the One
Which Concluded Our Second Book_.

LORD MONTFORT was scarcely disheartened by this interview with Miss
Temple. His lordship was a devout believer in the influence of time. It
was unnatural to suppose that one so young and so gifted as Henrietta
could ultimately maintain that her career was terminated because her
affections had been disappointed by an intimacy which was confessedly of
so recent an origin as the fatal one in question. Lord Montfort differed
from most men in this respect, that the consciousness of this intimacy
did not cost him even a pang. He preferred indeed to gain the heart of
a woman like Miss Temple, who, without having in the least degree
forfeited the innate purity of her nature and the native freshness of
her feelings, had yet learnt in some degree to penetrate the mystery of
the passions, to one so untutored in the world's ways, that she might
have bestowed upon him a heart less experienced indeed, but not more
innocent. He was convinced that the affection of Henrietta, if once
obtained, might be relied on, and that the painful past would only make
her more finely appreciate his high-minded devotion, and amid all the
dazzling characters and seducing spectacles of the world, cling to
him with a firmer gratitude and a more faithful fondness. And yet Lord
Montfort was a man of deep emotions, and of a very fastidious taste.
He was a man of as romantic a temperament as Ferdinand Armine; but
with Lord Montfort, life was the romance of reason; with Ferdinand,
the romance of imagination. The first was keenly alive to all the
imperfections of our nature, but he also gave that nature credit for
all its excellencies. He observed finely, he calculated nicely, and
his result was generally happiness. Ferdinand, on the contrary, neither
observed nor calculated. His imagination created fantasies, and his
impetuous passions struggled to realise them.

Although Lord Montfort carefully abstained from pursuing the subject
which nevertheless engrossed his thoughts, he had a vigilant and skilful
ally in Mr. Temple. That gentleman lost no opportunity of pleading his
lordship's cause, while he appeared only to advocate his own; and this
was the most skilful mode of contro