“Tender passions!—Captain Walsingham is in love, then, hey?” said Mr. Palmer. “And may I ask—Bless me! I shall be very sorry if it is with any body but—may I ask to whom he is attached?”
“That is a question that I am not quite at liberty perhaps to answer,” said Mr. Walsingham. “During the interval between his return in the Dreadnought and his being appointed to l’Ambuscade, an interval of about eighteen months, which he spent in the country here with me, he had time to become thoroughly acquainted with a very amiable young lady—”
“A very amiable young lady! and in this neighbourhood?” interrupted Mr. Palmer; “it must be the very person I mean, the very person I wish.”
“Do not ask me any more,” said Mr. Walsingham; “for my friend never declared his attachment, and I have no right to declare it for him. He was not, at the time I speak of, in circumstances to marry; therefore he honourably concealed, or rather suppressed, his passion, resolving not to attempt to engage the young lady’s affections till he should have made a fortune sufficient to support her in her own rank in life.”
“Well, now, that’s all done, thank Heaven!” cried Palmer: “he has fortune enough now, or we can help him out, you know. This is excellent, excellent!—Come, is it not time for us to go to the ladies? I’m impatient to tell this to Mrs. Beaumont.”
“Stay, my good Mr. Palmer,” said Mr. Walsingham. “What are you going to do?”
“Let me alone, let me alone—I’ll only tell what I guess—depend upon it, I guess right—and it may do a great deal of good to tell it to Mrs. Beaumont, and it will give her a great deal of pleasure—trust me—trust me.”
“I do trust you—but perhaps you may be mistaken.”
“Not at all, not at all, depend upon it; so let me go to her this minute.”
“But stop, my dear sir,” cried Mr. Beaumont, “stop for another reason; let me beg you to sit down again—I am not clear that Captain Walsingham is not at this instant in love with—perhaps, as it is reported, married to a Spanish lady, whom he has carried off out of a convent at ——, and whom I understand he is bringing home with him.”