Yet so well had it been performed, so fair and lovely did that gentle girl look, as she entered the drawing-room, that every eye was fixed on her in admiration.

The graceful folds of an Indian muslin dress enveloped her slight form, and a wreath of lilies of the valley, twined with the smallest pink rose-buds, confined her luxuriant hair; a scarcely perceptible blush was on her cheeks, and her eyes, continually wandering round the room, as if in search for some unseen object, shone with unusual brilliancy.

Her father whispered, as he found himself near her-- "I do not expect my friend will arrive till late, my little Emmy, but look as pretty then as you do now, and I shall be satisfied." She was relieved, but intelligence met her ear, ere dinner was concluded, that rendered it a fearful struggle to retain her composure.
Mrs.Cameron's family, Mr.Howard, and one or two others, she knew were coming in the evening, but that Lord St.Eval expected his brother Louis to arrive at Oakwood by eight or nine o'clock that same evening, was indeed information startling in the extreme.

Would he not be accompanied by his preceptor?
Would she not see him, from whom she had so long been parted?
see him, to whom her heart was given, and in his presence be introduced to the husband of her parents' choice?
Mrs.Hamilton watched her with extreme uneasiness, and when dinner was over, whispered, as it seemed, an earnest entreaty in her husband's ear.
He shook his head in sportive refusal; she still appeared anxious, but acquiesced.

The hours passed on.