“The packet of newspapers was soon before them, and ere long their search rewarded by the discovery of the following paragraph:—‘We lament to state that a melancholy occurrence took place on the 2nd instant at Coombe Beach, by which Sir Charles and Lady Aubrey have been plunged into the deepest affliction. Their only child, a lovely and interesting little girl of five years of age, had been imprudently left on the shingle while her nurse went into a fisherman’s cottage. On the return of the woman, shocking to relate, her charge was nowhere to be found; but her bonnet floating on the waves, and her little basket half full of wet sea-weeds lying on the shingle, too plainly proved that having ventured too near the edge, she had been caught by a wave, and carried out to perish in the sea. The body has not yet been washed on shore.’
“The shades of evening had fallen, the curtains had been closed, and the lamps placed in the drawing-room of Cove Abbey. It was the evening of their lost Julia’s birth-day; and though no open allusion had been made to this circumstance either by Sir Charles or Lady Aubrey, yet the tender and watchful attentions of the former, and the forced cheerfulness of the latter, sufficiently proved to each the recollection that was uppermost in their minds. Lady Aubrey was apparently intent upon her work, but her head was frequently turned, and her slender finger raised to brush away the tears that gathered on her eyelids. Sir Charles stooped over an open book, his forehead rested on his hand, but from beneath its shade many were the stolen and sorrowful glances which he cast at the evidences of patient grief before him.
“Suddenly they were startled from their sad thoughts by the sound of the gate bell, followed by that of wheels rolling rapidly through the court. ‘Who can be coming at this hour?’ exclaimed Sir Charles.
“‘And on this night!’ added Lady Aubrey, with a tremulous voice. The next moment the servant opened the door, and presented a card to Sir Charles, saying, ‘The gentleman requests, Sir, to be allowed to speak a few minutes with you in private,—General Carleton.’
“‘I know no such person,’ said Sir Charles; ‘however,’ added he to the servant, ‘order lights into the library, and show the gentleman there. I will attend him immediately.’
“The servant left the room, and Sir Charles lingered an instant to address a few words of soothing tenderness to Lady Aubrey, and then followed to the library to join his unknown guest. What was his surprise, when, instead of a formal explanation of the purport of his visit, he found his hand eagerly grasped by the stranger, while he said with a voice tremulous from emotion, ‘Sir Charles, can you bear good news?’
“‘I have already borne evil tidings,’ answered Sir Charles sorrowfully, ‘and I believe, were happy ones in store, they would not upset me.’
“‘Your child, then, is safe!’
“‘Impossible!’ exclaimed Sir Charles, staggering, and grasping a pillar for support, ‘say, say the words again, that I may know I heard them right.’