THE SMUGGLER. 397 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



SUCH as we have described in the last chapter, were the fatal 

 events to which Sir Edward Digby had alluded in the few 

 words he had spoken to Zara Croyland; and it may be need- 

 less to explain to the reader, that he had learned the tale from 

 his servant just before he came down to dinner. 



Sir Robert Croyland, as we have shown, after some agita- 

 tion and hesitation, quitted the drawing-room to meet the 

 first time for many years the son of a man, whom, at the 

 instigation of others, he had cruelly persecuted. He paused 

 as soon as he got into the passage, however, to summon cou- 

 rage, and to make up his mind as to the demeanour which he 

 should assume, always a vain and fruitless task; for seldom, 

 if ever, do circumstances allow any man to maintain the as- 

 pect which he has predetermined to affect. Sir R/obert Croy- 

 land resolved to be cold, stately, and repulsive; to treat Sir 

 Henry Layton as a perfect stranger, and if he alluded to their 

 former intimacy, to cut the conversation short by telling him 

 that, as all the feelings of those days were at an end, he did 

 not wish to revive their memory in any shape. He did not 

 calculate, indeed, upon the peculiar state of Layton's mind, at 

 the moment, nay, nor even upon the effect of his former fa- 

 vourite's personal appearance upon himself; and when he 

 entered the library and saw the tall, powerful, dignified-look- 

 ing man, the pale, thoughtful, stern countenance, and the 

 haughty air, he felt all his predeterminations vain. 



Layton, on his part, had done the same as Sir Robert Croy- 

 land, and in setting out from Woodchurch had made up his 

 mind to see in the man he went to visit, nothing but Edith's 

 father, to treat him kindly, gently, and with compassion for 

 his weakness, rather than anger at his faults; but as he rode 

 along, and conversed with one who accompanied him thither, 

 the memory of much that Sir Robert Croyland had done in 



