"
So saying, he left the company.
CHAPTER XIV.
He brings Earl Osmond to receive my vows.
O dreadful change! for Tancred, haughty Osmond.
--TANCRED AND SIGISMUNDA.
Mr. Vere, whom long practice of dissimulation had enabled to model his
very gait and footsteps to aid the purposes of deception, walked along
the stone passage, and up the first flight of steps towards Miss Vere's
apartment, with the alert, firm, and steady pace of one who is bound,
indeed, upon important business, but who entertains no doubt he can
terminate his affairs satisfactorily. But when out of hearing of the
gentlemen whom he had left, his step became so slow and irresolute, as
to correspond with his doubts and his fears. At length he paused in an
antechamber to collect his ideas, and form his plan of argument, before
approaching his daughter.
"In what more hopeless and inextricable dilemma was ever an unfortunate
man involved!" Such was the tenor of his reflections.--"If we now fall
to pieces by disunion, there can be little doubt that the government
will take my life as the prime agitator of the insurrection.
Pages:
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237