The last visit had increased this doubt to a painful apprehension.

He saw that he was not loved; he saw that it required great address, and the absence of happier rivals, to secure to him the hand of Evelyn; and he cursed the duties and the schemes which necessarily kept him from her side.

He had thought of persuading Lady Vargrave to let her come to London, where he could be ever at hand; and as the season was now set in, his representations on this head would appear sensible and just.

But then again this was to incur greater dangers than those he would avoid.

London!--a beauty and an heiress, in her first _debut_ in London! What formidable admirers would flock around her! Vargrave shuddered to think of the gay, handsome, well-dressed, seductive young _elegans_, who might seem, to a girl of seventeen, suitors far more fascinating than the middle-aged politician.