ELLEN NEVILLE. 
155 
house, should listen with pleasure to the conver¬ 
sation of one who was every way her equal, and 
whose name had never been mentioned but with 
respect, even by the Royalists, against whom he had 
drawn his sword. With such ease did he glide 
from one subject to another, that, to the great 
astonishment of Phoebe when she came up, she 
found them seated side by side in the old summer¬ 
house, he reading, and the Lady Ellen listening 
with delight to the beautiful passages which he kept 
quoting from the “Mask of Comus.” Many a 
happy hour did the General and the Lady Ellen 
afterwards spend together ; he remaining in entire 
ignorance respecting her rank and station, saving 
that her whole family, with the exception of herself, 
had perished during the wars ; but as any further 
allusion to the subject seemed to cause the lady 
pain, the young General kindly forbore to question 
her. 
As the winter approached the affairs of the 
nation called General Marchmont up to London, 
to meet the assembled parliament, and during that 
period he frequently corresponded with the Lady 
Ellen, for her image was ever uppermost in his 
thoughts ; and no sooner did the early spring come, 
and he was released from his duties, than he 
hastened back on the wings of love to the ancient 
manor-house. The Lady Ellen was walking in the 
