blade of the penknife that had served instead of a lancet. Lord
Castleton nodded to me. "Don't be uneasy,--a little fainting fit; we
have bled him. He is safe now,--see, he is recovering." Roland's eyes,
as they opened, turned to me with an anxious, inquiring look. I smiled
upon him as I kissed his forehead, and could, with a safe conscience,
whisper words which neither father nor Christian could refuse to receive
as comfort.

In a few minutes more we had left the house. As Lord Castleton's
carriage only held two, the marquis, having assisted Miss Trevanion and
Roland to enter, quietly mounted the seat behind and made a sign to me
to come by his side, for there was room for both. (His servant had
taken one of the horses that had brought thither Roland and myself, and
already gone on before.) No conversation took place between us then.
Lord Castleton seemed profoundly affected, and I had no words at my
command.

When we reached the inn at which Lord Castleton had changed horses,
about six miles distant, the marquis insisted on Fanny's taking some
rest for a few hours; for indeed she was thoroughly worn out.

I attended my uncle to his room; but he only answered my assurances of
his son's repentance with a pressure of the hand, and then, gliding from
me, went into the farthest recess of the room and there knelt down.
When he rose, he was passive and tractable as a child. He suffered me
to assist him to undress; and when he had lain down on the bed, he
turned his face quietly from the light, and after a few heavy sighs,
sleep seemed mercifully to steal upon him. I listened to his breathing
till it grew low and regular, and then descended to the sitting-room in
which I had left Lord Castleton, for he had asked me in a whisper to