Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 376: what you’re looking at

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JOSEPH WILMOT; OR THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT. their momentary alarm yielded to other feelings, when Sir Matthew exclaimed, “ Come, Annabel, my dearest girl!—come my beloved grandchild— and give your hand to Joseph in token that he shall receive it at the altar!” And the beauteous Annabel—with blushes on her cheeks, with smiles upon her lips, and with the tears which varied emotions drew from her eyes to trace their pearly path down her angelic face— advanced and gave me her hand. I pressed it to my lips—and I pressed it to my heart : I endea- voured to speak—but for upwards of a minute was my voice choked with the strength of the feelings which I now experienced. ** Annabel, dearest Annabel!” at length I said, “ you confer upon me a bliss such as no monarch could bestow! And, Oh! if I have reason to re- joice in the change which has taken place in my circumstances, it is that I am enabled to convince you how disinterested and how sincere has been my love! ForI come, not to claim your hand be- cause you are the heiress of the wealthiest B:ronet of Westmoreland ; I have come only because I love you, Annabel !—and if you were the poorest and the humblest, this day would have seen me here all the same! Ah, you all three gaze upon me in astonishment ?—you think that joy has turned my brain P— And heaven knows that to possess this dear hand were almost sufficient to render me wild with delight! But I know what I am saying —I have a revelation to make——this mourning garb re I paused for a few moments, and wiped away the tears from my eyes. Annabel looked up with the sweetest and the tenderest interest into my countenance: Sir Matthew and Mrs. Lanover drew nearer. | “Yes,” I continued; “ this mourning garb I wear it for my own father! And start not—I am Joseph Wilmot no longer—my birth is cleared | up and I, dearest Annabel—yes, I—I am the | Earl of Eccleston !” ——erw Ds CHAPTER CLIII. EXPLANATIONS. I am now about to redeem that pledge which I recently made to the reader: the gap which [I left in my narrative is to be here filled up. Itis a complete history of the past which will appro- | priately fit into this place: it is an explanation in | a consecutive form of those incidents and mysteries which have interwoven themselves so intricately with all the preceding portion of my narra- tive. ee - 363 had thus cut himself out from following any one of those honourable professions to which a young scion of the aristocracy might have devoted him- self with so many admirable chances of success. He was remarkably handsome, and possessed an elegant figure: his manners were fascinating—his conversation was agreeable. Clara Delmar—then entering her seventeenth year, without a mother’s guidance, and totally inexperienced in the ways of the world—became deepiy enamoured of Augustus Mulgrave. She heard that he had been wild, reckless, improvident, and extravagant: but it was so easy for a lover to persuade a fond confid- ing girl that the mutual affection which thus sub- sisted would be a sufficient motive to induce him to follow aright path for the future. But Mr. Delmar discouraged the attentions of Augustus Mulerave towards his daughter from the very moment that he first perceived them. Vainly did the young gentleman throw himself at Mr. Del- mar’s feet: vainly did Clara beseech her sive to have faith and confidence in the object of her love. The father, though in all other respects a kind and an indulgent one, was on this point in- exorable; for the character of Augustus Mulzrave had been represented to him as that of one who was inveterately and radically bad. He therefore commanded his daughter to think no more of Augustus, whom he peremptorily forbade the house. But however just were the reasons on which Mr. Delmar’s decree was founded,—it assumed, through the representations of Augustus, the aspect of an injustice and of atyranny in the eyes of Clara. The lovers met clandestinely,—their secret meetings being aided by a lady’s-maid in Mr. Delmar’s household. A private marriage was agreed upon; and it was solemnized at Enfield,— Mr. Dorchester being the officiating clergyman. A bribe secured the co-operation and the secresy of this unprincipled man: but his conduct was all the more reprelensible, inasmuch as he had re- ceived many marks of friendship from Mr. Del- mar. In the course of time Clara discovered that she was in a way to become a mother; and after a consultation with her husband, it was determined that they should throw themselves at Mr. Del- mar’s feet and confess everything. But as a necessary preliminary to this proceeding, they first of all sought to obtain a certificate of their marriage, which they had either neglected to do at the time, or else the copy which they had received was lost : but which of the two circumstances it was I can- not assert with accuracy. The faithful lady’s-maid was despatched to Enfield, which is at no great distance from Delmar Manor, to procure the certi- ficate : but on arriving there she learnt that Mr. ——_ - It was at the beginning of the year 1820 that | Dorchester had recently fled in order to escape the Hon. Augustus Mulgrave first became ac- | from arrest by sheriffs’-officers who were in pursuit quainted with Clara, one of the daughters of Mr. | of him. The clerk who had witnessed the marriage Delmar, a rich widower residing at Delmar | ceremony, had since died: but the lady’s-maid, Manor. Mr. Mulgrave was at that time just | little suspecting what was so shortly to transpire, entering his twenty-second year: he was a/| addressed herself to the new clerk, and asked for younger son, and tofa!ly dependant upon his father | the certificate. Tie register was referred to: but Lord Eccleston, as he was subsequently dependant | the leaf on which the entry had been made was for a considerable time on his elder brother when | gone! Its extraction from the book was visible : the latter succeeded to the title. Augustus Mul-| and there could be no doubt that Dorchester, for grave had been a very wild young man, and the | some reason or another, was the author of the source of much distress and vexation to his | deed. OOO) S ? family. He had been expelled from College, and | Bene Navn nm st) pr i a i (C | (0)