CHAPTER XVIII.
In spite of the previous assurance of Mrs.Poyntz, it was not without an uneasy apprehension that I approached the cedar-tree, under which Mrs.
Ashleigh still sat, her friend beside her.

I looked on the fair creature whose arm was linked in mine.

So young, so singularly lovely, and with all the gifts of birth and fortune which bend avarice and ambition the more submissively to youth and beauty, I felt as if I had wronged what a parent might justly deem her natural lot.
"Oh, if your mother should disapprove!" said I, falteringly.

Lilian leaned on my arm less lightly.

"If I had thought so," she said with her soft blush, "should I be thus by your side ?" So we passed under the boughs of the dark tree, and Lilian left me and kissed Mrs.Ashleigh's cheek; then, seating herself on the turf, laid her head on her mother's lap.