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.

412 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
answered Alice. " You yourself build wild hopes in the air, and accuse me
of destroying what had never any earthly foundation. Spare yourself,
Julian - spare me - and in mercy to us both depart, and return not again
till you can be more reasonable."
" Reasonable?" replied Julian; "it is you, Alice, who will deprive me
altogether of reason. Did you not say, that if our parents could be brought
to consent to our union, you would no longer oppose my suit?"
"No -no — no," said Alice, eagerly, and blushing deeply, "I did not
say so, Julian - it was your own wild imagination which put construction
on my silence and my confusion."
" You do not say so, then," answered Julian; " and if all other obstacles
were removed, I should find one in the cold flinty bosom of her who repays
the most devoted and sincere affection, with contempt and dislike? —Is that,"
he added, in a deep tone of feeling - "is that what Alice Bridgenorth says
to Julian Peveril?"
" Indeed -indeed, Julian," said the almost weeping girl, "I do not say
so -I say nothing, and I ought not to say anything concerning what I
might do, in a state of things which can never take place. Indeed, Julian,
you ought not thus to press me. Unprotected as I am-wishing you wellvery well - why should you urge me to say or do what would lessen me in
my own eyes? to own affection for one from whom fate has separated me
for ever? It is ungenerous -it is cruel - it is seeking a momentary and
selfish gratification to yourself, at the expense of every feeling which I ought
to entertain."
" You have said enough, Alice," said Julian, with sparkling eyes; "you
have said enough in deprecating my u&gency, and I will press you no farther. But you overrate the impediments which lie betwixt us -they must
and shall give way."
" So you said before," answered Alice, "and with what probability, your
own account may show. You dared not to mention the subject to your own
father - how should you venture to mention it to mine?"
" That I will soon enable you to decide upon. Major Bridgenorth, by my
mother's account, is a worthy and an estimable man. I will remind him,
*that to my mother's care he owes the dearest treasure and comfort of his
life; and I will ask him if it is a just retribution to make that mother childless. Let me but know where to find him, Alice, and you shall soon hear
if I have feared to plead my cause with him."
" Alas!" answered Alice, " you well know my uncertainty as to my dear
father's residence. How often has it been my earnest request to him that
he would let me share his solitary abode, or his obscure wanderings! But
the short and infrequent visits which he makes to this house are all that he
permits me of his society. Something I might surely do, however little, to
alleviate the melancholy by which he is oppressed."
" Something we might both do," said Peveril. " How willingly would I
aid you in so pleasing a task! All old griefs should be forgotten -all old
friendships revived. My father's prejudices are those of an Englishmanstrong, indeed, but not insurmountable by reason. Tell me, then, where
Miajor Bridgenorth is, and leave the rest to me; or let me but know by what
address your letters reach him, and I will forthwith essay to discover his
dwelling."
D; o not attempt it, I charge you," said Alice. " Hle is already a man
of sorrows; and what would he think were I capable of entertaining a suit
so likily to add to them? Besides, I could not tell you, if I would, where
he is now to be found. SMy letters reach him from time to time, by means
of my aunt Christian; but of his address I am entirely ignorant."
"Then, by Heaven," answered Julian, "I will watch his arrival in this
island, and in this house; and ere he has locked thee in his arms, he shall
answer to me on the subject of my suit."