He glanced down at his possession:--heaven and the yawning pit were the
contrast! Poisoned honey is after all honey while you eat it. Here
there was nothing but a rocky bowl of emptiness. And who was she? She
was the sister of Henrietta's husband. He was expected to embrace the
sister of Henrietta's husband. Those two were on their bridal tour.

This creature was also the daughter of an ancient impostor and desperado
called the Old Buccaneer; a distinguished member of the family of the
Lincolnshire Kirbys, boasting a present representative grimly acquitted,
men said, on a trial for murder. An eminent alliance! Society
considered the Earl of Fleetwood wildish, though he could manage his
affairs. He and his lawyers had them under strict control. How of
himself? The prize of the English marriage market had taken to his bosom
for his winsome bride the daughter of the Old Buccaneer. He was to mix
his blood with the blood of the Lincolnshire Kirbys, lying pallid under
the hesitating acquittal of a divided jury.

How had he come to this pass, which swung him round to think almost
regretfully of the scorned multitude of fair besiegers in the market,
some of whom had their unpoetic charms?

He was renowned and unrivalled as the man of stainless honour: the
one living man of his word. He had never broken it--never would. There
was his distinction among the herd. In that, a man is princely above
princes. The nobility of Edward Russett, Earl of Fleetwood, surpassed
the nobility of common nobles. But, by all that is holy, he pays for
his distinction.

The creature beside him is a franked issue of her old pirate of a father