Musgrave and other tales Author:Gordon Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: their hands together. " Tell him the whole, Mary. God bless you both, my children ! " He left them as he spoke; and the lovers remained to enter upon an explanat... more »ion, of whose rapture it were vain to attempt a description. chapter{Section 4CHAPTER XIII. " Where, through groves deep and high, Sounds the far billow; Where early violets die Under the willow, Soft shall be his pillow. There through the summer's day, Cool streams are laving; There while the tempests sway, Scarce are boughs waving. There thy rest shalt thou take." Sir Walter Scott. The explanation of Colonel Musgrave witH Mrs. Clarkson, which took place that afternoon, in his private sitting-room, immediately after the return of the party from their excursion, may likewise be left to the reader's imagination. It would not be easy Id find words wherein to depict the astonishment of that lady at the unexpected turn which affairs had now taken, not unmingled as the emotion was with consternation, and something resembling shame. The latter sentiment predominated in Mrs. Clarkson's mind, when, relieved from the presence of the stern and stately Musgrave, in whose eye she read more than his lips gave utterance to, she had leisure to ask herself the question, what would all the Mrs. Grundys of the hotel say, when she should be obliged to confess to them, that instead of a wife, " the Nabob" only wanted an adopted daughter? What would they say,—or think, —when they found that she had been manoeuvring to procure as a husband for her niece, the man who had been betrothed to her niece's mother! As to Miss Milsom, her motives havino- been less complex than her aunt's, so her emotions on the present occasion were lessvaried; and resolved themselves into pure and unadulterated jealousy and spite. T...« less