And both eagerly started forward, holding out their hands, in joyful welcome, before even thinking of the miracle of his advent.
Lionel at first shook hands with Magnus, then, seeming to yield to a sudden and irresistible impulse, folded him to his heart in a close brotherly embrace.
He then took Elsie’s hand, bowed over it gracefully, raised it tenderly to his lips, when Elsie exclaimed:
“Oh, my dear old playmate, I am so glad! so glad! that you were not lost after all!” threw herself into his arms.
The youth’s eye and cheek kindled with a hectic flush, as he pressed the innocent, affectionate girl for an instant to his bosom, and released her to turn and see Magnus grasp her arm with no very gentle hand, and lead her away. To the many eager questions of “When did you arrive?” “Where from?” “How did you escape?” “Where have you been all this time?” put to him by the astonished crowd as soon as they recovered sufficient strength, Lionel replied:
“To-morrow, to-morrow, I will tell you all about it.”
“That you shan’t! you shan’t tell for a week. It is enough, good Heaven, to have you among us. No more questions shall be asked or answered for a week!” exclaimed Judge Wylie, in a magisterial tone, and the company understood that they had been wearying a fatigued traveler, and desisted.
It was late when the ball broke up. And Judge Jacky, who seemed possessed with a spirit of jollity, resolved to follow up this party by one of his own. Accordingly, that very night, he improvised the “time, place, and circumstance” of a ball, and availed himself of the opportunity afforded by the presence of so many of his familiar friends, to give out rather informal verbal invitations. When all the company had departed, a cloud remained upon the brow of General Garnet. He spoke coldly to Magnus, in reply to his “good-night,” as the latter left the house. Alice looked deeply distressed. Elsie glanced from father to mother with a vague presentiment of impending evil.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE NEW-FOUND HEIR.
Ernest.—Which is the bridegroom?