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204 The weather had changed suddenly, and instead of a dull, but warm atmosphere, there had been a severe and sudden cold; and for the first time the travellers saw nature under the influence of a rime frost. It was well that wonder and delight forced them from dwelling on their own thoughts, for both were sad. The delay was matter of great regret to Guido; he felt his own increasing weakness—he looked forward with a gloomy foreboding, and thought what a relief it would have been, could he have seen his sister—for he could accustom himself to nothing but the tenderness of that long-familiar name—could he have seen his sister acknowledged, beloved, and secured from all further reverses.

Francesca, deceived by the colour which the keen air brought into his cheek—deceived, too, by his exertions to appear well before her, was less solicitous about his health; but, now that she was actually in England, grew more so about their future. Like Arden, though from a different motive, she was glad that the meeting with her father was postponed. Hitherto she had been so little accountable for her actions, save to herself alone; now, she was about to submit to the authority of another, and that one a perfect stranger to her. Bound by no affections that had grown up