Page:Paul Clifford Vol 3.djvu/195

Rh and gloomy countenance, the unstudied dress, and austere gait, which destroyed in Welford the effect of a really handsome person, our lieutenant thought fit to express his passion by a letter, which he conveyed to Mrs. Welford's pew. Mrs. Welford went not to church that day; the letter was found by a good-natured neighbour, and enclosed, anonymously, to the husband.

Whatever in the secrecy of domestic intercourse took place on this event was necessarily unknown; but the next Sunday, the face of Mr. Welford, which had never before appeared at church, was discerned by one vigilant neighbour,—probably the anonymous friend,—not in the same pew with his wife, but in a remote corner of the Sacred House. And once, when the Lieutenant was watching to read in Mrs. Welford's face some answer to his epistle, the same obliging Inspector declared that Welford's countenance assumed a sardonic and withering sneer that made his very blood to creep. However this be, the Lieutenant left his quarters, and Mrs. Welford's reputation remained dissatisfactorily untarnished Shortly after this, the county speculation failed, and it