‘Oh! don’t talk so dreadful.  Pray—­’

’Do you bid me pause?  At a word from you.  You are the arbitress of my destiny.’

’No; I’ve nothing to do—­do go!  Only promise you’ll not do nothing dangerous—­’

’Reject me, and life is intolerable.  Where the maddened crowd rise upon their tyrants, there in thickest of the fray—­’

’You’ll be the first to take to your heels, I’ll be bound!  Ain’t you ashamed of yourself, to be ranting and frightening a poor girl that fashion?’ cried the friendly dragon Martha, descending on them.

‘Do you apply that language to me, ma’am?’

’That I do! and richly you deserve it, too, sir!  See if your missus doesn’t hear of your tricks, if I find you at this again.’

The ‘sex’ fairly scolded the courteous Delaford off the field; and though she turned her wrath on Charlotte for having encouraged him, and wondered what the poor young man over the seas would think of it, her interposition had never been so welcome.  Charlotte cried herself into tranquillity, and was only farther disturbed by a dismal epistle, conveyed by the shoe-boy on the morning of departure, breathing the language of despair, and yet announcing that she had better think twice of the four hundred pounds and expectations, for that it was her destiny that she and no other should be the bride of Delaford.

‘If I could only know he would do nothing rash!’ sighed Charlotte.

Jane comforted her; Martha held that he was the last man in the world who would do anything rash.  Miss Conway’s Marianne, who was left behind, treated Charlotte as something ignominious, but looked so ill, miserable, and pining, that Miss Mercy was persuaded she was going into a decline, and treated her with greater kindness than she had met since she was a child.

In the meantime, Fitzjocelyn had begun with a fit of bashfulness.  The knowledge that this was the crisis, and that all his friends looked to the result of the expedition, made him feel as if he were committing himself whenever he handed Isabel in or out of a carriage, and find no comfort except in Virginia’s chattering.

This wore off quickly; the new scene took effect on his impressible mind, and the actual sights and sounds drove out all the rest.  His high spirits came back, he freely hazarded Mrs. Frost’s old boarding-school French, and laughed at the infinite blunders for which Virginia took him to task, was excessively amused at Delaford’s numerous adventures, and enjoyed everything to the utmost.  To Miss Conway he turned naturally as the person best able to enter into the countless associations of every scene; and Isabel, becoming aware of his amount of knowledge, and tone of deep thought, perceived that she had done Mr. Frost Dynevor injustice in believing his friendship blind or unmerited.