“I sincerely hope I have not given offence to your delicacy, Miss Moseley.  Lord Chatterton has made me an unwilling confidant.  I need not say the secret is sacred, on more accounts than one.”

“Surely not, Mr. Denbigh,” replied Emily, in a low tone; and the gig stopping, she hastened to accept the assistance of her brother to alight.

“Well, sister,” cried John, laughing, “Denbigh is a disciple to Frank’s system of horse-flesh.  Hairs smooth enough here, I see.  Grace and I thought you would never get home.”  Now, John fibbed a little, for neither Grace nor he had thought in the least about them, or anything else but each other, from the moment they separated until the gig arrived.

Emily made no reply to this speech, and as the gentlemen were engaged in giving directions concerning their horses, she seized an opportunity to read Chatterton’s letter.

“I avail myself of the return of my friend Mr. Denbigh to that happy family from which reason requires my self-banishment to assure my amiable cousin, of my continued respect for her character, and to convince her of my gratitude for the tenderness she has manifested to feelings she cannot return.  I may even venture to tell her what few women would be pleased to hear, but what I know Emily Moseley too well to doubt, for a moment, will give her unalloyed pleasure—­that owing to the kind, the benevolent, the brotherly attentions of my true friend, Mr. Denbigh, I have already gained a peace of mind and resignation I once thought was lost to me for ever.  Ah!  Emily, my beloved cousin, in Denbigh you will find, I doubt not, a mind, principles, congenial to your own.  It is impossible that he could see you without wishing to possess such a treasure; and, if I have a wish that is now uppermost in my heart, it is, that you may learn to esteem each other as you ought, when, I doubt not, you will become as happy as you both deserve to be.  What greater earthly blessing can I implore upon you!

“Chatterton.”

Emily, while reading this epistle, felt a confusion but little inferior to that which would have oppressed her had Denbigh himself been at her feet, soliciting that love Chatterton thought him so worthy of possessing; and when they met, she could hardly look in the face a man who, it would seem, had been so openly selected by another, as the fittest to be her partner for life.  The unaltered manner of Denbigh himself, however, soon convinced her that he was entirely ignorant of the contents of the note, and it greatly relieved her from the awkwardness his presence at first occasioned.

Francis soon returned, accompanied by his wife and aunt, and was overjoyed to find the guest who had so unexpectedly arrived.  His parents had not yet returned from their visit, and Denbigh, of course, would remain at his present quarters.  John promised to continue with them for a couple of days:  and everything was soon settled to the perfect satisfaction of the whole party.  Mrs. Wilson knew the great danger of suffering young people to be inmates of the same house too well, wantonly to incur the penalties, but her visit had nearly expired, and it might give her a better opportunity of judging Denbigh’s character; and Grace Chatterton, though too delicate to follow herself, was well contented to be followed, especially when John Moseley was the pursuer.