136 THE LEGEND OF THE ABBEY TOWER. 



secret haunts he had discovered ; he was eternally from home, yet 

 never seen abroad." 



" Well, sir Melancholy/* said the baronet, as Baldwin entered the 

 supper room, " in time for your meals, at least." 



" Indeed, sir," replied Baldwin," not for the meal's sake. I knew 

 your desire to see me punctually attendant at such times ; otherwise 

 1 had indulged in a longer walk upon this most lovely evening." 



As the father had a proposal, or rather an intimation to prefer, he 

 subdued his rising temper at the ill compliment thus paid to the 

 lady Matilda, and merely wondered that he should prefer a solitary 

 to a social contemplation of nature. " Egad ! " said the baronet, 

 ** I should not bag a brace if I went shooting alone ; and, at your 

 age, lad, I should never have chosen to walk the woods in solitude, 

 when I could have hoped in the condescension of a fair cousin to 

 accompany me." 



Then, of course, an apology on Baldwin*s part was followed by a 

 dispensation on Matilda's ; and the former, to make up for his past 

 delinquency, showed a most attentive readine.«^s, on the lady's rising 

 for an early departure to bed, in lighting her candle, and courteously 

 assisting her out of the room. 



The door being closed. Sir Baldwin, with several portentous 

 hems ! bade his son draw near and listen. The latter was alarmed 

 at his manner, as fearing it indicated a discovery of that secret, in 

 the preservation of which rested his remnant of happiness. With 

 what feelings he listened to his father's opening speech, I leave you 

 to judge. After a few incipient murmurings he thus proceeded. 



** Now, sir, you are aware of the pride — the very just pride, I 

 have always felt in the high antiquity and never sullied respectabi- 

 lity of my family. Judge then, what would be my mortification at 

 your union, my only son, with any woman of rank inferior to your 

 own. My jealousy on this matter is restless. I have heard, sir, of 

 attachments, in which young gentlemen have given way to some 

 silly or imagined sympathy ; have talked an abundance of trash 

 about disinterestedness and t»ther devilries, and have finally, by the 

 consummation of their wilfulness, justly suffered patrimonial confis- 

 cation. But sir," continued the baronet in a milder tone, " you 

 have too great a regard for your poor dear mother, sir ; and too 

 much respect for me to — to — to — reject (he found much difficulty 

 in bringing himself to the use of the word ; but he thought it politic 

 as an early measure) to reject the proposition which I have now to 

 make, and which I do at once, that you may be enabled to settle 

 your affections, for it has been hinted to me, sir, that they have 



