“L——!” cried the doctor, in evident amazement.  “Was he not at Bath then during your stay there?”

“No; I understand he was in attendance on some sick relative, which detained him from his friends,” said Mrs. Wilson, wondering why the doctor chose to introduce so delicate a topic.  Of his guilt in relation to Mrs. Fitzgerald he was doubtless ignorant, but surely not of his marriage.

“It is now some time since I heard from him,” continued the doctor, regarding Mrs. Wilson expressively, but to which the lady only replied with a gentle inclination of the body; and the Rector, after pausing a moment, continued: 

“You will not think me impertinent if I am bold enough to ask, has George ever expressed a wish to become connected with your niece by other ties than those of friendship?”

“He did,” answered the widow, after a little hesitation.

“He did, and—­”

“Was refused,” continued Mrs. Wilson, with a slight feeling for the dignity of her sex, which for a moment caused her to lose sight of justice to Denbigh.

Dr. Ives was silent; but manifested by his dejected countenance the interest he had taken in this anticipated connexion, and as Mrs. Wilson had spoken with ill-concealed reluctance on the subject at all, the Rector did not attempt a renewal of the disagreeable.

Chapter XXXVII.

“Samvenson has returned, and I certainly must hear from Harriet,” exclaimed the sister of Pendennyss, as she stood at a window watching the return of a servant from the neighboring post-office.

“I am afraid,” rejoined the Earl, who was seated by the breakfast table, waiting the leisure of the lady to give him his cup of tea—­“You find Wales very dull, sister.  I sincerely hope both Derwent and Harriet will not forget their promise of visiting us this month.”

The lady slowly took her seat at the table, engrossed in her own reflections, when the man entered with his budget of news; and having deposited sundry papers and letters he respectfully withdrew.  The Earl glanced his eyes over the directions of the epistles, and turning to his servants said, “Answer the bell when called.”  Three or four liveried footmen deposited their silver salvers and different implements of servitude, and the peer and his sister were left to themselves.

“Here is one from the Duke to me, and one for you from his sister,” said the brother; “I propose they be read aloud for our mutual advantage.”  To this proposal the lady, whose curiosity to hear the contents of Derwent’s letter greatly exceeded her interest in that of his sister, cheerfully acquiesced, and her brother first broke the seal of his own epistle, and read its contents as follow: 

“Notwithstanding my promise of seeing you this month in Caernarvonshire, I remain here yet, my dear Pendennyss, unable to tear myself from the attractions I have found in this city, although the pleasure of their contemplation has been purchased at the expense of mortified feelings and unrequited affections.  It is a truth (though possibly difficult to be believed), that this mercenary age has produced a female disengaged, young, and by no means very rich, who has refused a jointure of six thousand a year, with the privilege of walking at a coronation within a dozen of royalty itself.”