Amy clasped her hands, as if in a transport of gratitude, exclaiming, fervently,—
"What a relief it is to know that you are not doomed to—"
She paused with a shiver, as if the word were too hard to utter, and Sidney turned to her with a beaming face, which changed to one of mingled pain and anger, as she added, with a wicked glance,—
"Wear spectacles."
"Amy, you've got no heart!" he cried, in a tone that banished her last doubt of his love and made her whisper tenderly, as she clung to his arm,—
"No, dear; I've given it all to you."
Punctual to the minute, Major Erskine marched into the salon, with Mrs. Cumberland on his arm, exclaiming, as he eyed the four young people together again,—
"Now, ladies, is it to be 'Paradise Lost' or 'Regained' for the prisoners at the bar?"
At this point the astonished gentleman found himself taken possession of by four excited individuals, for the girls embraced and kissed him, the young men wrung his hand and thanked him, and all seemed bent on assuring him that they were intensely happy, grateful and affectionate.
From this assault he emerged flushed and breathless, but beaming with satisfaction, and saying paternally,—