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 “we must try to get the matter made out some way or other; but I am sure that the major’s lady won’t be pleased.”

“The major’s lady!” I exclaimed. “What then, is the major a married man?”

“To be sure is he!” rejoined Lewis. “His wife has been living here with her sister since Easter, for the benefit of medical advice; and the major visits her every fortnight. But she is a great deal better now, and is to go away with him in a few days. Did you not observe her this morning? She was in the first carriage with her sister.”

I could now have whipped myself for a jealous fool and blockhead. It was with his own wife that I had heard the major conversing the previous evening, and Florentine’s honour was still unimpeachable! I now told Lewis that after considering the matter, I was sure my friend would not be willing to occasion the major or his lady any uneasiness, and that the proposed alteration might be dispensed with for a night or two at least.

At this moment the two carriages returned from the country, and Florentine appeared seated now with her mother and the other ladies. She reproached me gently for not having joined the party, and altogether bore herself so modestly and yet so witchingly towards me that I was more deeply in love with her than ever!

Fatigued by the heat of her journey, Florentine did not appear at the supper-table, and I retired to my own room at an early hour, in a much more comfortable state of mind than on the preceding evening.

not slept long before I was awakened by a tremendous thunder-storm, and as I lay listening to the terrific peals