ABSTRACT
Description, however laboured, would fail to convey an idea of the meeting of Marchmont with his family. Althea declined being present when he arrived; and never yet had she so much occasion to collect that mild fortitude which her early instructress (alarmed for her happiness when she saw her trembling sensibility) had laboured to make part of her character. Between the time when his safety and arrival in England were known and the present moment, the thoughts of Althea had been wholly occupied by the idea of seeing him as an accepted lover; for that he was such could not fail to be understood, nor did she mean affectedly or prudishly to disavow what her heart dictated. Had she been mistress of millions, it was to Marchmont she would have given them. Possessing hardly a gentlewoman’s support, and even part of that likely to be disputed or withheld, it was with him she determined to share it; and if this resolution was taken while he was absent, his presence, his ardent affection for her, were certain to confirm it.
