the characters indistinct, the writing crooked, the words so few, and
those few scarce legible!

He desired to see her, and to see her alone; she could not hesitate in
her compliance,--but whom could she dismiss?--her servants, if ordered
away, would but be curiously upon the watch,--she could think of no
expedient, she was all hurry and amazement.

She asked if any one waited for an answer? The footman said no; that
the note was given in by somebody who did not speak, and who ran out of
sight the moment he had delivered it.

She could not doubt this was Delvile himself,--Delvile who should now
be just returned from the castle to his mother, and whom she had
thought not even a letter would reach if directed any where nearer than
Margate!

All she could devise in obedience to him, was to go and wait for him
alone in her dressing-room, giving orders that if any one called they
might be immediately brought up to her, as she expected somebody upon
business, with whom she must not be interrupted.

This was extremely disagreeable to her; yet, contrary as it was to
their agreement, she felt no inclination to reproach Delvile; the
abruptness of his note, the evident hand-shaking with which it had been
written, the strangeness of the request in a situation such as theirs,
--all concurred to assure her he came not to her idly, and all led her
to apprehend he came to her with evil tidings.

What they might be, she had no time to conjecture; a servant, in a few