Chapter 32

The seniors of the party at Benfield Lodge were all assembled one morning
in a parlor, when its master and the baronet were occupied in the perusal
of the London papers. Clara had persuaded her sisters to accompany her and
Francis in an excursion as far as the village.

Jane yet continued reserved and distant to most of her friends; while
Emily's conduct would have escaped unnoticed, did not her blanched cheek
and wandering looks at times speak a language not to be misunderstood.
With all her relatives she maintained the affectionate intercourse she had
always supported; though not even to her aunt did the name of Denbigh pass
her lips. But in her most private and humble petitions to God, she never
forgot to mingle with her requests for spiritual blessings on herself,
fervent prayers for the conversion of the preserver of her life.

Mrs. Wilson, as she sat by the side of her sister at their needles, first
discovered an unusual uneasiness in their venerable host, while he turned
his paper over and over, as if unwilling or unable to comprehend some part
of its contents, until he rang the bell violently, and bid the servant to
send Johnson to him without a moment's delay.

"Peter," said Mr. Benfield doubtingly, "read that--your eyes are young,
Peter; read that."

Peter took the paper, and after having adjusted his spectacles to his
satisfaction, he proceeded to obey his master's injunctions; but the same
defect of vision as suddenly seized the steward as it had affected his
master. He turned the paper sideways, and appeared to be spelling the
matter of the paragraph to himself. Peter would have given his three
hundred a year to have had the impatient John Moseley a hand, to relieve
him from his task; but the anxiety of Mr. Benfield overcoming his fear of
the worst, he inquired in tremulous tone--

"Peter? hem! Peter, what do you think?"

"Why, your honor," replied the steward, stealing a look at his master, "it
does seem so indeed."

"I remember," said the master, "when Lord Gosford saw the marriage of the
countess announced he--"

Here the old gentleman was obliged to stop, and rising with dignity, and
leaning on the arm of his faithful servant, he left the room.

Mrs. Wilson immediately took up the paper, and her eye catching the
paragraph at a glance, she read aloud as follows to her expecting friends:

"Married by special license, at the seat of the Most Noble the Marquess of
Eltringham, in Devonshire, by the Right Rev. Lord Bishop of ----, George
Denbigh Esq., Lieutenant Colonel of his Majesty's ---- regiment of
dragoons, to the Right Honorable Lady Laura Stapleton, eldest sister of
the