The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

PEVERIL OF TIHE PEAK. 407
guage - that the son of Peveril addresses thus the daughter of your father
- that he thus kneels to you for forgiveness of injuries which passed when
we were both infants, shows the will of Heaven, that in our affection should
be quenched the discord of our parents. What else could lead those who
parted infants on the hills of Derbyshire, to meet thus in the valleys of Mian?"
Alice, however new such a scene, and, above all, her own emotions, might
be, was highly endowed with that exquisite delicacy which is imprinted in
the female heart, to give warning of the slightest approach to impropriety
in a situation like hers.
"Rise, rise, Master Peveril," she said; "do not do yourself and me this
injustice-we have done both wrong-very wrong; but my fault was done
in ignorance. 0 God! my poor father, who needs comfort so much - is it
for me to add to his misfortunes? Rise 1" she added, more firmly; "if you
retain this unbecoming posture any longer, I will leave the room, and you
shall never see me more."
The commanding tone of Alice overawed the impetuosity of her lover,
who took in silence a seat removed to some distance from hers, and was
again about to speak. "Julian," said she, in a Bmilder tone, "you have
spoken enough, and more than enough. Would you had left me in the
pleasing dream in which I could have listened to you for ever! but the hour
of wakening is arrived." Peveril waited the prosecution of her speech as.
a criminal while he waits his doom; for he was sufficiently sensible that an
answer, delivered not certainly without emotion, but with firmness and resolution, was not to be interrupted. "W Ve have done wrong," she repeated,
"very wrong; and if we now separate for ever, the pain we may feel will
be but a just penalty for our error. We should never have met: meeting,
we should part as soon as possible. Our farther intercourse can but double
our pain at parting. Farewell, Julian; and forget we ever have seen each
other!"
" Forget!" said Julian; " never, never. To you, it is easy to speak the
word — to think the thought. To ne, an approach to either can only be by
utter destruction. Why should you doubt that the, feud of our fathers, like
so many of which we have heard, might be appeased by our friendship?
You are my only friend. I am the only one whom iesaven has assigned to
you. Why should we separate for the fault of others, which befell when
we were but children?"
" You speak in vain, Julian," said Alice; " I pity you - perhaps I pity
myself-indeed, I should pity myself, perhaps, the most of the two; for you
will go forth to new scenes and new faces, and will soon forget me; but I,
remaining in this solitude, how shall I forget? - that, however, is not now
the question -I can bear nmy lot, and it commands us to part."
" Hear me yet a moment," said Peveril; "this evil is not, cannot be
remediless. I will go to my father, — I will use the intercession of my
mother, to whom he can refuse nothing - I will gain their consent - they
have no other child -and they must consent, or lose him for ever. Say,
Alice, if I come to you wvith my parents' consent to my suit, will you again
say, with that tone so touching and so sad, yet so incredibly determined —
Julian, we must part?" Alice was silent. "Cruel girl, will you not even
deign to answer me?" said her lover.
"We answer not those who speak in their dreams," said Alice. "You
ask me what I would do were impossibilities performed. What right have
you to make such suppositions, and ask such a question?"
" Hope, Alice, Hope," answered Julian, "the last support of the wretched,
which even you surely would not be cruel enough to deprive mie of. In
every difficulty, in every doubt, in every danger, Hope will fight even if he
cannot conquer. Tell me once more, if I come to you in the name of my
father-in the name of that mother, to whom you partly owe your life, what
would you answer to me?"