Henrietta Temple Part 38

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BOOK VI. [CONTINUED]

CHAPTER IV.

_In Which Mr. Glas...o...b..ry Informs Captain Armine of His Meeting with Miss Temple_.

IT WAS still an early hour when Mr. Glas...o...b..ry arrived at his hotel.

He understood, however, that Captain Armine had already returned and retired. Glas...o...b..ry knocked gently at his door, and was invited to enter. The good man was pale and agitated. Ferdinand was already in bed.

Glas...o...b..ry took a chair, and seated himself by his side.

'My dear friend, what is the matter?' said Ferdinand.

'I have seen her, I have seen her!' said Glas...o...b..ry.

'Henrietta! seen Henrietta?' enquired Ferdinand.

Glas...o...b..ry nodded a.s.sent, but with a most rueful expression of countenance.

'What has happened? what did she say?' asked Ferdinand in a quick voice.

'You are two innocent lambs,' said Glas...o...b..ry, rubbing his hands.

'Speak, speak, my Glas...o...b..ry.'

'I wish that my death could make you both happy,' said Glas...o...b..ry; 'but I fear that would do you no good.'

'Is there any hope?' said Ferdinand. 'None!' said Glas...o...b..ry. 'Prepare yourself, my dear child, for the worst.'

'Is she married?' enquired Ferdinand.

'No; but she is going to be.'

'I know it,' said Ferdinand.

Glas...o...b..ry stared.

'You know it? what! to Digby?'

'Digby, or whatever his name may be; d.a.m.n him!'

'Hush! hush!' said Glas...o...b..ry.

'May all the curses------'

'G.o.d forbid,' said Glas...o...b..ry, interrupting him.

'Unfeeling, fickle, false, treacherous------'

'She is an angel,' said Glas...o...b..ry, 'a very angel. She has fainted, and nearly in my arms.'

'Fainted! nearly in your arms! Oh, tell me all, tell me all, Glas...o...b..ry,' exclaimed Ferdinand, starting up in his bed with an eager voice and sparkling eyes. 'Does she love me?'

'I fear so,' said Glas...o...b..ry. 'Fear!'

'Oh, how I pity her poor innocent heart!' said Glas...o...b..ry.

'When I told her of all your sufferings------'

'Did you tell her? What then?'

'And she herself has barely recovered from a long and terrible illness.'

'My own Henrietta! Now I could die happy,' said Ferdinand.

'I thought it would break your heart,' said Glas...o...b..ry.

'It is the only happy moment I have known for months,' said Ferdinand.

'I was so overwhelmed that I lost my presence of mind,' said Glas...o...b..ry. 'I really never meant to tell you anything. I do not know how I came into your room.'

'Dear, dear Glas...o...b..ry, I am myself again.'

'Only think!' said Glas...o...b..ry; 'I never was so unhappy in my life.'

'I have endured for the last four hours the tortures of the d.a.m.ned,'

said Ferdinand, 'to think that she was going to be married, to be married to another; that she was happy, proud, prosperous, totally regardless of me, perhaps utterly forgetful of the past; and that I was dying like a dog in this cursed caravanserai! O Glas...o...b..ry! nothing that I have ever endured has been equal to the h.e.l.l of this day. And now you have come and made me comparatively happy. I shall get up directly.'

Glas...o...b..ry looked quite astonished; he could not comprehend how his fatal intelligence could have produced effects so directly contrary from those he had antic.i.p.ated. However, in answer to Ferdinand's reiterated enquiries, he contrived to give a detailed account of everything that had occurred, and Ferdinand's running commentary continued to be one of constant self-congratulation.

'There is, however, one misfortune,' said Ferdinand, 'with which you are unacquainted, my dear friend.'

'Indeed!' said Glas...o...b..ry, 'I thought I knew enough.'

'Alas! she has become a great heiress!'

'Is that it?' said Glas...o...b..ry.

'There is the blow,' said Ferdinand. 'Were it not for that, by the soul of my grandfather, I would tear her from the arms of this stripling.'

'Stripling!' said Glas...o...b..ry. 'I never saw a truer n.o.bleman in my life.'