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Rh was a just, ay, and a kind woman; yet she would sooner have seen the lovely and gentle creature—who had grown up at her knees, whose watchful love had been for years the daily solace of a life broken by sickness—in the grave, than the bride of her son. She spoke to her, and harshly, while Lucy only wept, and felt the most guilty thing in the wide world. From that hour, love to the one seemed ingratitude to the other; the disparity of their conditions haunted her perpetually. She was wretched and restless when Francis was away, but still more wretched when with him; for the thought of his mother haunted her with all the bitterness of remorse.

Francis was enraged at the interference, and opposition made him more in earnest; but just at this time, the civil war, which had hitherto left their part of the country comparatively quiet, arose with great virulence in their immediate vicinity. Early friends, and the superior gaiety of their camp, soon led the younger Evelyn to join the royalists; and the burning of Major Johnstone's house compelled him to leave the neighbourhood. Perhaps, as bitter medicines strengthen the weakened system, it would have given force to Lucy's efforts at resignation could she have known how seldom did her image arise in her lover's memory. His