CHAPTER XIII.
You talk of Gaiety and Innocence! The moment when the fatal fruit was eaten, They parted ne'er to meet again; and Malice Has ever since been playmate to light Gaiety, From the first moment when the smiling infant Destroys the flower or butterfly he toys with, To the last chuckle of the dying miser, Who on his deathbed laughs his last to hear His wealthy neighbour has become a bankrupt.
OLD PLAY.
Sir Kenneth was left for some minutes alone and in darkness.

Here was another interruption which must prolong his absence from his post, and he began almost to repent the facility with which he had been induced to quit it.

But to return without seeing the Lady Edith was now not to be thought of.

He had committed a breach of military discipline, and was determined at least to prove the reality of the seductive expectations which had tempted him to do so.

Meanwhile his situation was unpleasant.
There was no light to show him into what sort of apartment he had been led--the Lady Edith was in immediate attendance on the Queen of England--and the discovery of his having introduced himself thus furtively into the royal pavilion might, were it discovered; lead to much and dangerous suspicion.