Page:Paul Clifford Vol 2.djvu/246

238 as if lately displaced, and he caught through their interstices the glimpse of a receding figure. He sprang forward with an agility very uncommon to his usual movements; but before he gained the copse, every vestige of the intruder had vanished.

What slaves we are to the moment! As Mauleverer turned back to rejoin Lucy, who, agitated almost to fainting, leaned against the rude wall of the hut, he would as soon have thought of flying as of making that generous offer of self, &c. which the instant before he had been burning to render Lucy. The vain are always confoundedly jealous, and Mauleverer remembering Clifford, and Lucy's blushes in dancing with him, instantly accounted for her agitation and its cause. With a very grave air he approached the object of his late adoration, and requested to know if it were not some abrupt intruder that had occasioned her alarm. Lucy scarcely knowing what she said, answered in a low voice, "That it was, indeed!" and begged instantly to rejoin her father. Mauleverer offered his arm with great dignity, and the pair passed