CHAPTER XXX.
This open exhibition of love and war did not take place, as may be supposed, the first year of Glentworth's visit, but it did on the second, when Margarita, having entered her fifteenth year, and being introduced into society, had become so attractive, that the timidity of the lover and the prudence of the man gave way, and his declaration was the signal of that unhappy strife which we have mentioned, and which involved every member of this little circle in anxiety and distress.
"We were happiest of the happy before you came amongst us," said the countess, in effect; "leave us, that we may regain our peace, and maintain our principles; we love and esteem you as a friend, but can not receive you as a son. To our only child we are devoted so entirely, that we must not give her to one whose example and whose tenderness (combined with her childhood's recollections of your country and my conduct) would in time be sure to seduce her from the truth. She has a great capacity, a love for investigation; she reads and thinks too much, and would become a victim to her reasoning faculties, the great
