complete Sophy's education, interrupted by grief for her missing
grandfather, and obtain indeed, when William Losely again returned,
some proofs (if such existed) to corroborate the assertion of Sophy's
parentage. "And," added Lionel, "Lady Montfort seems to fear that she
has given you some cause of displeasure--what I know not, but which might
have induced you to disapprove of the acquaintance I had begun with her.
Be that as it may, would you could hear the reverence with which she ever
alludes to your worth--the gratitude with which she attests her mother's
and her own early obligations to your intellect and heart!" Finally,
Lionel wove all his threads of recital into the confession of the deep
love into which his romantic memories of Sophy's wandering childhood had
been ripened by the sight of her graceful, cultured youth. "Grant," he
said, "that her father's tale be false--and no doubt you have sufficient
reasons to discredit it--still, if you cannot love her as your daughter's
child, receive, know her, I implore--let her love and revere you--as my
wife! Leave me to protect her from a lawless father--leave me to redeem,
by some deeds of loyalty and honour, any stain that her grandsire's
sentence may seem to fix upon our union. Oh! if ambitious before, how
ambitious I should be now--to efface for her sake, as for mine, her
grandsire's shame, my father's errors! But if, on the other hand, she
should, on the requisite inquiries, be proved to descend from your
ancestry--your father's blood in her pure veins--I know, alas! then that
I should have no right to aspire to such nuptials. Who would even think
of her descent from a William Losely? Who would not be too proud to
remember only her descent from you? All spots would vanish in the
splendour of your renown; the highest in the land would court her
alliance. And I am but the pensioner of your bounty, and only on my
father's side of gentle origin. But still I think you would not reject
me--you would place the future to my credit; and I would wait, wait
patiently, till I had won such a soldier's name as would entitle me to