In liquid undulations
of sweet sound they floated insensibly down the windings of the waltz,
nor dreamed of danger till the note of warning came. It was a
prodigious note--nothing less than the boom of a cannon--and the
signal for instant, perhaps life-long, separation.
"Who could guess,
If ever more should meet those mutual eyes?
Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise."
But, as we know, two pairs at least of those mutual eyes were destined
to meet again, and meet as gladly and warmly as when their owners
danced together on the evening before the battle of Waterloo. But the
chill atmosphere of a father's disapproval lay between them. It is
reasonable to suppose that the fourth Duke of Richmond and Lennox was
not so susceptible to the charms of pensive and picturesque young
gentlemen as was his wilful daughter. Among the names on a list of
invitations to a party given by the latter appeared that of Sir
Peregrine Maitland, which, coming under the cold parental eye, was
promptly erased. At the same time he inquired of his daughter why she
permitted that undesirable gentleman to hang about her skirts--why she
did not let him go.
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