s, excited a heart
susceptible of the liveliest emotions to a degree which it required some
effort to control, and almost a tear to relieve. When Miss Aubrey had
quitted the piano, Mrs. Aubrey followed, and gave a very delicate sonata
from Haydn. Then sat down Lady Lydsdale, and dashed off, in an
exceedingly brilliant style, a _scena_ from the new opera, which quickly
reduced the excited feelings of Delamere to a pitch admitting of his
presenting himself! While this lowering process was going on, Delamere
took down a small volume from a tasteful little cabinet of books
immediately behind him. It was Spenser's _Faery Queen_. He found many
pencil-marks, evidently made by a light female hand; and turning to the
fly-leaf, beheld the name of "_Catherine Aubrey_." His heart fluttered;
he turned towards the piano, and beheld the graceful figure of Miss
Aubrey standing beside Lady Lydsdale, in an attitude of delighted
earnestness--for her ladyship was undoubtedly a very brilliant
performer--totally unconscious of the admiring eye which was fixed upon
her. After gazing at her for some moments, he gently pressed the
autograph to his lips; and solemnly vowed within himself, in the most
deliberate manner possible, that if he could not marry Kate Aubrey, he
would never marry anybody; he would, moreover, quit England forever; and
deposit a broken heart in a foreign grave--and so forth. Thus calmly
resolved--or rather to such a resolution did his thoughts tend--that
sedate person, the Honorable Geoffrey Lovel Delamere. He was a
high-spirited, frank-hearted fellow; and, like a good-natured fool, whom
bitter knowledge of the world has not cooled down into contempt for a
very considerable portion of it, trusted and loved almost every one whom
he saw. At that moment there was only one person in the whole world that
he hated, viz. the miserable individual--if any such there were--who
might have happened to forestall him in the affections of Miss Aubrey.
The bare idea made his breath come and go quickly, and his cheek flush.
Why, he felt that he had a sort of _right_ to Miss Aubrey's heart; for
had they not been born, and had they not lived almost all their lives,
within a few miles of each other? Had they not often played
together?--were not their family estates almost contiguous?--Delamere
advanced into the room, assuming as unconcerned an air as he could; but
he felt not a little tried when Miss Aubrey, on seeing him, gayly and
frankly ex