'But you were her rival, as well as her child; remember that. However, you look so ill, that now, if ever, she will forgive you, I think: therefore I will go back to Mrs Mowbray; and while I am there do you come, ask for me, and follow the servant into the room.'
'I will,' replied Adeline: and leaning on the arm of her lover, she slowly followed the doctor to her mother's hotel.
CHAPTER XVI
'This is the most awful moment of my life,' said Adeline.
'And the most anxious one of mine,' replied Glenmurray. 'If Mrs Mowbray forgives you, it will be probably on condition that—'
'Whatever be the conditions, I must accept them,' said Adeline.
'True,' returned Glenmurray, wiping the cold dews of weakness from his forehead: 'but no matter—at any rate, I should not have been with you long.'
Adeline, with a look of agony, pressed the arm she held to her bosom.
Glenmurray's heart smote him immediately—he felt he had been ungenerous; and, while the hectic of a moment passed across his cheek, he added, 'But I do not do myself justice in saying so. I believe my best chance of recovery is the certainty of your being easy. Let me but see you happy, and so disinterested is my affection, as I have often told you, that I shall cheerfully assent to any thing that may ensure your happiness.'