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Rh was already attached to Clifford; and being, by that conviction, fully persuaded that Lucy was necessary to his own happiness, he resolved to lose not a moment in banishing Captain Clifford from her presence, or, at least, in instituting such inquiries into that gentleman's relatives, rank, and respectability, as would, he hoped, render such banishment a necessary consequence of the research.

Fraught with this determination, Mauleverer repaired at once to the retreat of the Squire, and engaging him in conversation, bluntly asked him, "Who the deuce Miss Brandon was dancing with?"

The Squire, a little piqued at this brusquerie, replied by a long eulogium on Paul, and Mauleverer, after hearing it throughout with the blandest smile imaginable, told the Squire, very politely, that he was sure Mr. Brandon's good-nature had misled him. "Clifford!" said he, repeating the name, "Clifford! it is one of those names which are particularly selected by persons nobody knows;