Page:Lady Anne Granard 2.pdf/121

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LADY ANNE GRANARD.
119

sufferings so justly demanded. To find himself placed in a situation he had so often contemplated as being the summit of all earthly felicity to a man of his description, and from which he had been so cruelly torn away from time to time, rendered his position as surprising as it was delightful, and a miracle seemed to have been wrought in his favour, as if to reward him for the sorrow of past years by the promise of the future.

He could have been eloquent in his praises of his wife, and the far sweeter praises of her fair boy; and much did he wish to apologize for every word and look (from whatever cause) that could by possibility have hurt her; but he was hurried away, lest he should injure her whom at this moment he could have died to bless.

Isabella recovered slowly, but her child was a thriving one, and became to her a source of such constant occupation and delight, that she urged her husband to set out on his projected journey. Much as he had desired to do so a week before, he now sought rather to elude the prescription than take it; but he soon found of a truth something must be submitted to, for his late mental disease had become bodily ailment, which would not yield to his bidding.

"You must go—there is no helping it now—you need not travel over such rough ground as I prescribed at first, nor seek at all hazards for excitement, for the cord that draws you homeward will