Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 3).djvu/68

 right; it is in this convent your future companion resides. I will step out and inquire if my uncle has been, or is here." He jumped out of the carriage; was wanting about ten minutes, which I thought an age, when coming up to the door of the chaise, with a smiling countenance—"Step out into the parlour, my dear Louisa; Miss Nolker will attend you instantly. We are before my uncle."

Where was my reason and prudence at that moment, when a duplicity so obvious, a scheme so ill contrived, never struck me as a fallacy. I readily gave my hand to the base betrayer; entered the gates, and in a moment was in the great Court, surrounded by eight or ten nuns, and my companion gone. For the instant I put my foot inside the outer gate, and turned towards the parlour. He dropped my hand; the other gate opened, and the nuns appeared. The whole was so quick, that I scarcely missed his hand before I lost sight of his person.