ader.

Mowbray was glad to find himself alone, in order to think over what had
happened, and to ascertain the state of his own mind, which at present
was puzzling even to himself. He could not but feel that much greater
advantages of every kind might accrue to himself and his family from the
alliance of the wealthy young Earl, than could have been derived from
any share of his spoils which he had proposed to gain by superior
address in play, or greater skill on the turf. But his pride was hurt
when he recollected that he had placed himself entirely in Lord
Etherington's power; and the escape from absolute ruin which he had
made, solely by the sufferance of his opponent, had nothing in it
consolatory to his wounded feelings. He was lowered in his own eyes,
when he recollected how completely the proposed victim of his ingenuity
had seen through his schemes, and only abstained from baffling them
entirely, because to do so suited best with his own. There was a shade
of suspicion, too, which he could not entirely eradicate from his
mind.--What occasion had this young nobleman to preface, by the
voluntary loss of a brace of thousands, a proposal which must have been
acceptable in itself, without any such sacrifice? And why should he,
after all, have been so eager to secure his accession to the proposed
alliance, before he had even seen the lady who was the object of it?
However hurried for time, he might have waited the event at least of the
entertainment at Shaws-Castle, at which Clara was necessarily obliged to
make her appearance.--Yet such conduct, however unusual, was equally
inconsistent with any sinister intentions; since the sacrifice of a
large sum of money, and the declaration of his views upon a portionless
young lady of family, could scarcely be the preface to any unfair
practice. So that, upon the whole, Mowbray settled, that what was
uncommon in the Earl's conduct arose from the hasty and eager
disposition of a rich young Englishman, to whom money is of little
consequence, and who is too headlong in pursuit of the favourite plan of
the moment, to proceed in the most rational or most ordinary manner. If,
however, there should prove any thing farther in the matter than he
could at present discover, Mowbray promised himself that the utmost
circumspection on his part could not fail to discover it, and that in
full time to prevent any ill consequences to his sister or himself.

Immersed in such cogitations, he avoid