When they were alone, he conjured Mr. Lawson to tell him what he thought of the lady?
'Upon my word, Sir, she is in a very high fever, and it seems to be occasioned by extreme perturbation of spirits and great fatigue. Forgive, Sir, if I ask what particular circumstance has been the cause of the uneasiness under which she appears to labour? If it is any little love quarrel you cannot too soon adjust it.'
Delamere stopped his conjectures, by telling him who he was; and gave him in a few words the history of their expedition.
Mr. Lawson protested to him that if she was hurried on in her present state, it would be surprising if she survived the journey.
'She shall stay here then,' replied Delamere, 'till she recovers her fatigue.'
'But, Sir,' enquired Mr. Lawson, 'after what you have told me of your father, have you no apprehension of a pursuit?'
His terror at Emmeline's immediate danger had obliterated for a moment every other fear. It now recurred with redoubled violence. He remembered that Rochely was at Mrs. Ashwood's on the evening of Emmeline's departure; and he knew that from him Sir Richard Crofts, and consequently Lord Montreville, would have immediate intelligence.
He struck his hands together, exclaiming, 'She will be every way lost!—lost irretrievably! If my father overtakes us, she will return with him, and I shall see her no more!'
He now gave way to such unbounded passion, walking about the room, and striking his forehead, that Lawson began to believe his intellects were as much deranged as the frame of the fair sufferer he had left. For some moments he attended to nothing; but Mr. Lawson, accustomed to make allowances for the diseases of the mind as well as those of the body, did not lose his patience; and at length persuaded him to be calmer, by representing that he wasted in fruitless exclamation the time which might be employed in providing against the apprehended evil.