I comforted her as well as I might.  Joy and exultation, were mine, to possess, and to save her.  Yet not to excite fresh agitation in her, “per non turbar quel bel viso sereno,” I curbed my delight.  I strove to quiet the eager dancing of my heart; I turned from her my eyes, beaming with too much tenderness, and proudly, to dark night, and the inclement atmosphere, murmured the expressions of my transport.  We reached London, methought, all too soon; and yet I could not regret our speedy arrival, when I witnessed the extasy with which my beloved girl found herself in her brother’s arms, safe from every evil, under his unblamed protection.

Adrian wrote a brief note to his mother, informing her that Idris was under his care and guardianship.  Several days elapsed, and at last an answer came, dated from Cologne.  “It was useless,” the haughty and disappointed lady wrote, “for the Earl of Windsor and his sister to address again the injured parent, whose only expectation of tranquillity must be derived from oblivion of their existence.  Her desires had been blasted, her schemes overthrown.  She did not complain; in her brother’s court she would find, not compensation for their disobedience (filial unkindness admitted of none), but such a state of things and mode of life, as might best reconcile her to her fate.  Under such circumstances, she positively declined any communication with them.”

Such were the strange and incredible events, that finally brought about my union with the sister of my best friend, with my adored Idris.  With simplicity and courage she set aside the prejudices and opposition which were obstacles to my happiness, nor scrupled to give her hand, where she had given her heart.  To be worthy of her, to raise myself to her height through the exertion of talents and virtue, to repay her love with devoted, unwearied tenderness, were the only thanks I could offer for the matchless gift.

CHAPTER VI.

And now let the reader, passing over some short period of time, be introduced to our happy circle.  Adrian, Idris and I, were established in Windsor Castle; Lord Raymond and my sister, inhabited a house which the former had built on the borders of the Great Park, near Perdita’s cottage, as was still named the low-roofed abode, where we two, poor even in hope, had each received the assurance of our felicity.  We had our separate occupations and our common amusements.  Sometimes we passed whole days under the leafy covert of the forest with our books and music.  This occurred during those rare days in this country, when the sun mounts his etherial throne in unclouded majesty, and the windless atmosphere is as a bath of pellucid and grateful water, wrapping the senses in tranquillity.  When the clouds veiled the sky, and the wind scattered them there and here, rending their woof, and strewing its fragments through the aerial plains—­then we rode out, and sought new spots of beauty and repose.