Vivian interrupted Lady Julia’s reverie by pointing out to her, as they passed along the terrace, a group of heads, in one of the back windows of the castle, that seemed to be watching them very earnestly. Miss Strictland’s face was foremost; half her body was out of the window; and as she drew back, they heard her say—“It is not he!—It is not he!”—As they passed another front of the castle, another party seemed to be upon the watch at a staircase window;—the lawyer, the captain, the clergyman’s heads appeared for a moment, and vanished.
“They seem all to be upon the watch for us,” said Vivian.
“Meanness!” cried Lady Julia. “To watch or to be watched, I know not which is most degrading; but I cannot think they are watching us.”
“My dear Lady Julia!—yet let me call you dear this once—my hopes are gone!—even for your forgiveness I have no right to hope—but let me do you one piece of service—let me put your open temper on its guard. You flatter yourself that the secret you confided to me is not known to any body living but to your father—I have reason to believe that it is suspected, if not positively known, by several other persons in this castle.”
“Impossible!”
“I am certain, too certain, of what I say.”
Lady Julia made a sudden stop; and, after a pause, exclaimed—
“Then farewell hope! and, with hope, farewell fear!”
“My lady, my lord sent me again, for my lord’s very impatient for you, my lady,” said the same footman, returning. Lord Glistonbury met them in the hall.—“Why, Julia! where have you been all this time?” he began, in an imperious tone; but seeing Mr. Vivian, his brow grew smooth and his voice good-humoured instantly.—“Ha!—So! so!—Hey! well!—All right! all right!—Good girl! good girl!—Time for every thing—Hey! Mr. Vivian?—‘Que la solitude est charmante!’ as Voltaire says—Beg pardon for sending for you; but interruption, you know, prevents têtes-à-têtes on the stage from growing tiresome; and the stage, they say, holds the mirror up to nature. But there’s no nature now left to hold the mirror up to, except in a few odd instances, as in my Julia here!—Where so fast, my blushing darling?”
“I thought you wished, sir, that I should go to Lady Playdel and Sir James.”