or giving him slights that neither good breeding nor good nature could justify.  At one time, indeed, she had expressed a wish to return to Clara; but this Mrs. Wilson thought would only protract the evil, and she was compelled to wait his own time.  The peer himself did not rejoice more in his ability to make the offer, therefore, than Emily did to have it in her power to decline it.  Her rejection was firm and unqualified, but uttered with a grace and a tenderness to his feelings, that bound her lover tighter than ever in her chains, and he resolved on immediate flight as his only recourse.

“I hope nothing unpleasant has occurred to Lord Chatterton,” said Denbigh, with great interest, as he reached the spot where the young peer stood leaning his head against a tree, on his way from the rectory to the hall.

Chatterton raised his face as he spoke:  there were evident traces of tears on it, and Denbigh, greatly shocked, was about to proceed as the other caught his arm.

“Mr. Denbigh,” said the young man, in a voice almost choked with emotion, “may you never know the pain I have felt this morning.  Emily—­Emily Moseley—­is lost to me—­for ever.”

For a moment the blood rushed to the face of Denbigh, and his eyes flashed with a look that Chatterton could not stand.  He turned, as the voice of Denbigh, in those remarkable tones which distinguished it from every other voice he had ever heard, uttered—­

“Chatterton, my lord, we are friends, I hope—­I wish it; from my heart.”

“Go, Mr. Denbigh—­go.  You were going to Miss Moseley—­do not let me detain you.”

“I am going with you, Lord Chatterton, unless you forbid it,” said Denbigh, with emphasis, slipping his arm through that of the peer.

For two hours they walked together in the park; and when they appeared at dinner, Emily wondered why Mr. Denbigh had taken a seat next to her mother, instead of his usual place between herself and her aunt.  In the evening, he announced his intention of leaving B——­ for a short time with Lord Chatterton.  They were going to London together; but he hoped to return within ten days.  This sudden determination caused some surprise; but, as the dowager supposed it was to secure the new situation, and the remainder of their friends thought it might be business, it was soon forgotten, though much regretted for the time.  The gentlemen left the hall that night to proceed to an inn, from which they could obtain a chaise and horses; and the following morning, when the baronet’s family assembled around their social breakfast, they were many miles on the road to the metropolis.

Chapter XV.

Lady Chatterton, finding that little was to be expected in her present situation, excepting what she looked forward to from the varying admiration of John Moseley to her youngest daughter, determined to accept an invitation of Borne standing to a nobleman’s seat about fifty miles from the hall, and, in order to keep things in their proper places, to leave Grace with her friends, who had expressed a wish to that effect.  Accordingly, the day succeeding the departure of her son, she proceeded on her expedition, accompanied by her willing assistant in the matrimonial speculations.