"Henry, I admire your taste," said Miss Beauchamp, as they walked back to the inn; "she is a beautiful, sweet girl, indeed, and will do very well to make a countess of."
"Hush, hush, Maria!" said her brother. "Spare your raillery yet for a while. There is much to be got over, before we come to such conclusions as that. The game is yet to be played, and I will give you leave to laugh if I win."
"You will be a sad bungler, my dear brother, if you lose such a game as that," replied Miss Beauchamp; "for you have all the cards in your own hands; but let us arrange our plans, Harry. At whatsoever hour you please to-morrow, you take some vile beast of a horse from the inn, and ride over by yourself. I will come to breakfast at my own time in the carriage. Nay, I will have my way this time at least; for I do not choose to have any lover in the carriage with me--except it were one of my own."
Beauchamp yielded, of course; for there were more cogent arguments in his own breast in favor of his sister's plans, than any she thought fit to produce. He had now food enough for thought during the evening; but he did not forget to send for good Dr. Arnoux, from whom he received a confirmation of his worst apprehensions in regard to the widow's son. From that worthy man, also, he learned that it was at his suggestion that Captain Delaware, and Sir Sidney--who had been an old friend of his while he lived as an _emigré_ at Emberton--had fixed their abode at Poligny, the retired situation of which, and its immediate proximity to both Switzerland and Germany, rendered it peculiarly advantageous under the circumstances in which they were placed for the time.
This conference ended, Beauchamp retired to bed, and obtained such sleep as lovers usually are supposed to gain while their fate is in suspense.
CHAPTER XLII.
A horse was easily procured, and early on the following morning Beauchamp was on his way to the château inhabited by Sir Sidney Delaware and his family. The house was, like most French houses of the kind, furnished with a court in the front, large iron gates, and a wide woody inclosure called a park, stretching up the side of the hill, full of straight alleys and mathematical walks.
At the corner of the inclosure, Beauchamp looked at his watch, and to his surprise found that it still wanted nearly half an hour of eight.
"This is very foolish of me," thought he, as he rode along the park wall--"I shall find no one up, and they will all think me mad." But at that moment, as he looked over the low wall and up one of the long alleys, he caught a view of two persons crossing the farther extremity of it; and he was instantly satisfied that there were other wakeful people in the world as well as himself. "It is Blanche and her brother," he thought; and, riding up to the court, he flung his bridle to a boy who was standing there, and without further inquiry hastened into the park. The wood was somewhat labyrinthine; but Beauchamp had observed the direction taken by the figures he had seen, and following one of the cross alleys, he soon entered that wherein he had beheld them, and in which he found that they were still walking slowly on, about a hundred yards before him, unconscious that there was any one in the park but themselves.
As Captain Delaware was speaking eagerly and loud, Beauchamp, to avoid overhearing his conversation with his sister, hastened forward, pronouncing his name, and was almost immediately by their side. He was greeted by both with evident pleasure; but upon Blanche's cheek, though it was much paler than it had been in England, there was still that flickering blush, on which we have already written a long discussion.