Mr.Brandon was the first to descend to the breakfast, muttering as he descended the stairs, "Well now, hang me if I am not glad that's off (for I do not like to think much of so silly a matter) my mind.

And as for my brother, I sha' n't tell him till it's all over and settled.

And if he is angry, he and the old lord may, though I don't mean to be unbrotherly, go to the devil together!" When the three were assembled at the breakfast-table, there could not, perhaps, have been found anywhere a stronger contrast than that which the radiant face of Lucy bore to the haggard and worn expression that disfigured the handsome features of her lover.

So marked was the change that one night seemed to have wrought upon Clifford, that even the squire was startled and alarmed at it.

But Lucy, whose innocent vanity pleased itself with accounting for the alteration, consoled herself with the hope of soon witnessing a very different expression on the countenance of her lover; and though she was silent, and her happiness lay quiet and deep within her, yet in her eyes and lip there was that which seemed to Clifford an insult to his own misery, and stung him to the heart.