Rhoda Fleming -- Volume 4

showing soiled silent window-blinds, he hurried and chafed; at one moment in sharp joy that he had got a resolution, and the next dismayed by the singular petty impediments which were t

r of old tragedy. "She has blinded her eyes, stifled her senses, eaten her heart. Oh! my beloved! my wife! my poor girl! and all to be free from shame in her father's sight!" Who could have believed that a girl of Dahlia's clas

remembering it and her pretty humming of it in the old days, Edward's wrestling unbelief with the fatality of the hour sank, so entirely was he under the sovereignty of his sensations. He gave the boy a

minutes gone, by a gentleman,"

tatement. In pity for his torpid incredulity she begged him to examine h

ept in," said the lawyer,

ying for weeks; and last night her sister came, and they hadn't me

ard's articul

r? That I do not know. Of

skeleton stood out. Up to this point he had blamed himself; now he accused the just heavens. Yea! is not a sinner their lawful quarry? and do they not slip the hounds with savage glee, and hu

whether he should transfer a further slice of ham or of Yorkshire pie to his plate

w where tha

w, really! what man?" But passion stops

thousand in

dded with a

I'll write the promise, and put my signature. Tell him he shall, on my word of honour, have another-another thousand pounds-as soon as I can

cigar-case. Edward wrote a line on a slip of note-paper, and signed his name beneath. With this and an unsa

an expensive thing not to kno

't care a button for me. No colonies for me. I should feel

led upon a scheme. The sight of a tobacconist's shop charmed one of his more

s he does? And I'm the dog that gets the bad name. The idea of giving this f

raught, the proper friendly thing to do is to think

it, but I haven't; and the fellow won't take a fart

n foot. "Odd faces one sees," he meditated. "I suppose they've got feelings, like the rest; but a fellow can't help asking-what's the use of them? If I inherit al

after all. Why had he ever considered it obscure? It was decidedly ne

, but gave neither nod, nor smile, nor a word, in answer to his flying wave of the hand. Furious, and aghast at this signal of exclusion from

say Mr. Latters,"

cording to our laws of primogeniture, I don't come

nodded to Lord Suckling,

ank

se me," he said, hurriedly; "my cousin Ned's in a mess, and I've been helping him as well as I can-bother

he queried of

and the Blucher of bank-notes was proffered to

at all the Clubs last

ar him groan. He told the cabman to drive Northward, instead of to the South-west. The question of the thousand pounds had been decided for him-"by fate," he chose to affirm. The consideration that one is pursued by fate, will not fail to impart a sense of dignity even to the meanest. "After all, if I stop in England," said he, "I can't afford to lose my position in society; anything's better than that an unmitigated low sc

a to his lodgings, whither, when free from Edward, Rhoda proceeded in a mood of extreme sternness. She neither thanked Ro

s at twelve?

eplied:

o irritating for masculi

everything here that you

ttend to the bell.

ything," said Rhoda. "There is m

e sure Dahlia did not call for his assistance. Her cry of appeal would have fortified him to stand against Rhoda; but no cry was heard. He kept expecting it, pausing for it, hoping it would come to solve his intense perple

ve minutes' work going to be done, which we may all of us regret till the day o

us for her to listen to feelings, and regrets, and objections. The world against one poor woman

or can do?" said Robert, m

it vividly, he became more certain that she must break down. Was it in her power to drag Dahlia to the steps of the altar? And would not her heart melt when at last Dahlia did get her voice? "This marriage can never take place!" he said, and was convinced of its being imp

imself into a chair, he thought of waiting in that place; but a crowd of undefinable sensations immediately beset him. Seeing Edward Blancove in t

sin." Edward had his wat

you tell me the

said Robert, comparing

ur minutes pa

said Edward. "I fa

tes past, is th

ch as

a minute

aid Edward, "to as

in the kitchen here, I

ck at the church, jus

will go and

better not. "I can tell you the time to a second

d, behind this mask of common-place dialogue, they watched

ny reliance on wat

lieve," Rob

un every day in this cl

t timepiece, when visi

n America don't

astonish the In

!" humme

er past. Or, a three quarters to t

ave the queerest ways in the world. The

us, and perhaps do the

thout contemptuous indignation, tho

howed his singular, smallish, hard-cut and flashing features, clear as if he had blown off a mist-"you are too much of a man to bear malice. Where is Dahlia?

I could have said guilty to the same sort of things, in order to tell an enemy of mine I was so

iefly assenting, while

" he

er sister

no will o

I'm afraid,

ster! Are they o

t I am a

his fa

he can't lift up his head if he so much

I do more? Are they mad with some absurd country pride? Half-past eleven!-it will be murder if they force her to it! Where is she?

s on him, and never liked to ask much about him. I had a sort of feeling. Her

rd muttered hurriedly-"you k

g over him with a

athed huskily, and his

d, unable to

That foul dog?-Or you, stay where you are. I'll go. He to be Dahlia's husband! They've seen him, and

saw the minister closing the Book at the altar, and three persons moving

ITOR'S B

his ears be fille

eer's a h

tobacconist for the grow

turally as an

ongue out, if it

e like shadow

wful thing, wher

compassion for fool

our hypothesis before yo

you. She is fi

with her to belie

do not wish to li

ive yourself to