The outcome of this incident was a duel, to prevent which Miss Milner deceived him by confessing a passion for Lord Frederick, although to Miss Woodley she avowed the real truth, that it was Dorriforth she loved.

“Do you suppose I love Lord Frederick?  Do you suppose I can love him?  Oh, fly, and prevent my guardian from telling him this untruth!  This duel is horrible even beyond anything else!  Oh, Miss Woodley, pity the agonies of my heart, my heart by nature sincere, when such are the fatal propensities it cherishes that I must submit to the grossest falsehoods rather than reveal the truth!  Are you so blind,” she exclaimed, “as to believe I do not care for Mr. Dorriforth?  Oh, Miss Woodley, I love him with all the passion of a woman, and with all the tenderness of a wife!”

“Silence!” cried Miss Woodley, struck with horror.  Yet, amidst all her grief and abhorrence, pity was still predominant, and, seeing her friend’s misery, she did all she could to comfort her.  But she was resolved that she should leave home, and, on pain of revealing her secret to Mr. Dorriforth, induced her to pay a visit of indefinite length to her friends at Bath.

There, in the melancholy that possessed her, Miss Woodley’s letters alone gave her consolation.  In a short time her health became impaired; she was once in imminent danger, and during her delirium incessantly repeated her guardian’s name.  Miss Woodley journeyed to her at once, and so did Dorriforth, who, through the death of his cousin, Lord Elmwood, had acquired his title and estates.  On this account he had received a dispensation from his vow of celibacy, and was enjoined to marry.  His ward felt a pleasure so exquisite on hearing this that the agitation of mind and person brought with it the sensation of exquisite pain; but, to her cruel grief, she found that he was, on the advice of his friends, already paying his addresses to Miss Fenton.

As if a poniard had thrust her to the heart, she writhed under this unexpected stroke; she felt, and she expressed anguish.  Lord Elmwood was alarmed and shocked.  But later, when, in his perplexity concerning his ward’s marriage, he induced Miss Woodley to tell him on whom Miss Milner’s choice was fixed, his vehemence filled her with alarm.

“For God’s sake, take care what you are doing!  You are destroying my prospects of futurity, you are making this world too dear to me!  I am transported by the tidings you have revealed—­and yet, perhaps, I had better not have heard them!” he exclaimed.  And then, to prevent further question, he hastened out of the room.

Within a few days he was her professed lover—­she, the happiest of human beings—­Miss Woodley partaking in the joy.  Mr. Sandford alone lamented with the deepest concern that Miss Fenton had been supplanted—­and supplanted by Miss Milner.

Yet Miss Fenton was perhaps affected least of any by the change; she received everything with the same insipid smile of approbation, and the same cold indifference.