The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 144: what you’re looking at

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THE REVIEW 127 to form the very meanest idea of his general character. But while he was reflecting, and the earl was rattling away with some new anecdote, comprising a tissue of falsehoods, the youth, happening to glance from the window (the hbrary being on the ground floor), perceived two ladies strolling with a gentleman in the grounds. He could not see their faces, but the figure of one of those ladies produced an 1mme- diate impression upon our young hero, filling his heart with mingled hope, astonishment, and suspense. His counte- nance did not, however, betray any of these emotions, and the earl, happening at the same time to glance through the window, exclaimed, “ ‘That lady on the right is the Countess of Lascelles. She is a wiie every way worthy of such a hus- band, — young and beautiful, elegant and accomplished. And that is my son, Lord Osmond. Ah! I see you start with surprise, and well you may. You naturally wonder that I can have a son of his age? But between you and me, I was wonderfully precocious, and was a father at seventeen. That other young lady is my niece, Miss Vincent.”’ _ The reader cannot be at a loss to conjecture why Christian had started. It was not because he was in the least aston- ished at the vain and frivolous earl having a son of such an age, seeing that he had rightly guessed his lordship’s own years to have reached sixty, so that he might very well have a son of twenty-three, but it was that at the moment the trio turned around at the end of the gravel walk, and Chris- tian not only recognized in Lord Osmond the tall, handsome young man through whom he had already experienced some little degree of mental trouble, but the sight of Isabella’s lovely countenance had sent a thrill of joy through his heart. He now no longer hesitated to accept the proffered situation. He paused not to reflect whether he should be allowed to retain it when it came to be discovered that he was ac- quainted with Miss Vincent. The bare thought of obtaining a post which might bring him for hours together within the same walls which she evidently inhabited was alone sufh- cient to make him hasten to conclude the bargain. The matter of salary was soon settled, and it was understood that he was to remove into the neighbourhood that very day, in order to be at hand to commence his duties on the ensuing one. ““T mean to treat you quite in a friendly and confidential CONNIE DOOKS (C(O)