between Mauleverer and Clifford which regaled her ears. Nevertheless,
whatever might have been her feelings at these pleasing recitals, a
certain vague joy predominated over all. A man feels but slight
comparative happiness in being loved, if he know that it is in vain; but
to a woman that simple knowledge is sufficient to destroy the memory of a
thousand distresses, and it is not till she has told her heart again and
again that she is loved, that she will even begin to ask if it be in
vain.

It was a partially starlight yet a dim and obscure night, for the moon
had for the last hour or two been surrounded by mist and cloud, when at
length the carriage arrived; and Mauleverer, for the second time that
evening playing the escort, conducted Lucy to the vehicle. Anxious to
learn if she had seen or been addressed by Clifford, the subtle earl, as
he led her to the gate, dwelt particularly on the intrusion of that
person, and by the trembling of the hand which rested on his arm, he drew
no delicious omen for his own hopes. "However," thought he, "the man
goes to-morrow, and then the field will be clear; the girl's a child yet,
and I forgive her folly." And with an air of chivalric veneration,
Mauleverer bowed the object of his pardon into her carriage.

As soon as Lucy felt herself alone with her father, the emotions so long
pent within her forced themselves into vent, is and leaning back against
the carriage, she wept, though in silence, tears, burning tears, of
sorrow, comfort, agitation, anxiety.

The good old squire was slow in perceiving his daughter's emotion; it
would have escaped him altogether, if, actuated by a kindly warming of
the heart towards her, originating in his new suspicion of her love for
Clifford, he had not put his arm round her neck; and this unexpected