THE EARL'S PROPOSAL TO MRS. GORDON. 407 



towards her the deepest regard and affection. " In short, my 

 dear madam," he added, " your interest in my children is almost 

 as deep as my own ; and in return they regard you as their 

 mother. What a joyful surprise it would be to them all, to 

 find their hopes realised on their return home ! " 



"My dear friend," replied Mrs. Gordon, "your proposition 

 has come so unexpectedly upon me, that I must have time for 

 reflection before I can give you a decisive answer ; but, believe 

 me, I am not insensible to your many excellent qualities of 

 heart and disposition." 



Fred Beauchamp and the gay widow approaching, put a 

 stop to the further efforts of the Earl in pressing his suit, and 

 he had only time to entreat she would write him a favourable 

 reply in a day or two, as his future happiness was now dependent 

 on her consent. 



Mrs. Gordon, uninfluenced by worldly considerations or 

 ambitious views, felt sorely perplexed by the Earl's proposal. 

 She was perfectly satisfied with her own position, and the 

 thoughts of leaving her happy home, with every comfort and 

 all her pets around her, produced such painful sensations, that 

 she had nearly resolved on writing a refusal, although couched 

 in the most friendly language, with cogent reasons for declining 

 the honour he intended conferring upon her ; when Lady Mal- 

 colm, observing her sister's unusual abstraction of thought and 

 nervous manner, at last drew the secret from her, and the con- 

 fession of the distressing situation in which she felt placed by 

 being compelled to give pain to one she so highly respected, 

 with the dread of that coolness which would naturally arise to 

 destroy the harmony which had hitherto existed between the 

 two families. 



" My dear Margaret," continued Lady Malcolm, " you have 

 not advanced one single reasonable excuse for your purposed 

 rejection of the dear old Earl, to whom, I am convinced, you 

 are much more deeply attached than you like to confess to me ; 

 in fact, I have long observed, since his visit to me in London, 

 your evident partiality for each other. There is no necessity 

 for giving up the Priory or your pets ; but even if such a sacri- 

 fice were required, I should not hesitate in resigning all, rather 

 than give up your oldest and dearest friend. Indeed, my dear 

 sister, I am only surprised you could have hesitated for one 

 moment to accept the Earl's offer, independently of the great 

 pleasure it will afford those dear girls, Blanche and Constance, 

 as well as myself. There will be times, of course, when Charles 

 and William must be absent from this part of the country. 



