Page:Peterson's Magazine 1842, Volume I.pdf/432

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"Do you know Templeton?" said a gentleman to his companion, as they rode into the Park, "yonder he goes on that spirited bay—too fine an animal by half for such a fellow."

"Slightly, but I never knew, Stanly, that you did not like him. I've always heard that he was a gentleman, and withal a clever companion."

"Oh! I knew him at the University, where he always affected learning. I hate your scholars as I hate the plague. And now he has set up for a fine gentleman, and a dandy, forsooth, the contemptible puppy.”

"Well, there is something in hearing both sides. I don't know him at all, but his friends say he is only a polished gentleman, and you magnify him into a fop. But, as you were classmates, you ought to know him."

"I do. And, by St. George, there he is at the side of my sister. Will he never cease his attentions to her? I'll bet any thing now he's a coward; and to settle it I shall insult him. He pay attention to Louisa!—I'll have a word to say on that point."

At the words Stanly spurred his horse forward, and soon reached his sister, who seemed deeply engaged in conversation with Templeton. The brother did not hesitate an instant, but seizing his sister's rein with some violence, he drew it from Templeton's hold, and in a voice in which passion had already attained the mastery, insisted on the other leaving her side.

Templeton looked confounded, and the young lady besought her brother, as eloquently as woman's eyes can speak, to desist, and, as a last resource, put her horse at a brisk canter, leaving the excited young gentlemen to settle the dispute as they best might ; but not without the most lively fears for the issue. Nor were those fears without foundation. Templeton soon evinced that he was not wanting in spirit, though the passion of Stanly forbade, from the first, any hope of an accommodation. Templeton, indeed, endured the insults of the brother as long as he could, seeming indisposed to quarrel with a relative of Louisa, but at length he was forced to take notice of Stanly's remarks, and high words ensued, which ended with a tacit understanding that the difficulty should be settled by a duel.

The night of the foregoing fracas, a large party had assembled at the house of a noble friend of one of the belligerent parties, at which Louisa Stanly chanced to be a guest, and hearing her own name frequently repeated in the course of conversation, her anxiety so far overcame her scruples, that she ventured to address a gentleman whom she observed had but lately quitted a group of his companions, where it was plain to distinguish, her name formed the prominent subject of discussion.

"Ha!" exclaimed Captain Alcroft, acknowledging her salutation with a very polite bow, " it gives me sincere pleasure to meet you; I——"

"Captain," said the lady, " will you enlighten me as to the cause of my name being so much in request to-night ; wherever I turn I can distinguish nothing but my name, and some young ladies, whose party I left but now to accost you, are so mysteriously silent and ambiguous to my inquiries, that I really feel somewhat uncomfortable; pray tell me, is it any thing in which my brother is concerned?"

"Why—yes—that is, your brother and Templeton. You know Lawrence Templeton?"

"Oh, dear me, yes," said the fair girl, recalling to mind the afternoon's ride, and trembling for the result of her inquiries. "What of Templeton, Captain?"

"Why," said her companion, humorously, "that I think him, notwithstanding the effeminate graces he sometimes puts on, to be a deuced pleasant fellow; and what does Miss Stanly think ?" said the Captain, archly.

"Oh, that he is very well, certainly; but come, Captain, will you please to satisfy a lady's inquiries, or must I seek the information I wish elsewhere?"

The Captain apologised, and proceeded to narrate the afternoon's subsequent adventure, which was but just concluded, when, feigning slight indisposition as the cause, Miss Stanly ordered her carriage immediately, and ere it had been announced, the trembling young lady had eagerly descended to the hall, where she stood waiting its arrival, scarcely conscious of the presence of the numerous servants. "We couldn't get through the rank, Miss," said the footman, at length appearing, and respectfully touching his laced hat, in reply to her reproof at the delay. After giving the word "home," she sprang into the carriage, and a few moments afterward alighted at the family residence in——square. Louisa Stanly was a young lady with a highly cultivated mind, and had received an education commensurate with the position she held in society; she was at once accomplished and beautiful, and possessed of an equally susceptible nature. It cannot, therefore, be made a matter of surprise that one, young, handsome, and well-bred as Templeton, and, like herself, the possessor of a richly cultivated intellect, and a deportment highly polished from constant intercourse with the best society, should have made considerable advances in her youthful affections. There existed, indeed, a natural and a warm passion in the hearts of these lovers - a passion which, hitherto, had been kept secret from the families of either, and of which Stanly himself had never entertained the slightest idea until the unfortunate discovery and rencontre in the park.

Stanly was quietly seated at the breakfast table on VOL. II.- 22