as if the very air was garrulous, that he could draw forth—(for now he insisted on a verbal reply)—her happy answer.
We are not afraid that our reader will blame us for not detailing the rest of the interview between the father and daughter, it did not last above an hour longer; for the Squire declared, that for his own part, he hated more words than were necessary. Mr. Brandon was the first to descend to the breakfast, muttering as he decended the stairs, "Well now, hang me if I am not glad that's off—(for I do not like to think much of so silly a matter)—my mind. And as for my brother, I shan't tell him till it's all over, and settled. And if he is angry, he and the old Lord may—though I don't mean to be unbrotherly—go to the devil together!"
When the three were assembled at the breakfast-table, there could not perhaps have been found any where a stronger contrast than that which the radiant face of Lucy bore to the haggard and worn expression that disfigured the
