smiling. "Hear him, Emma; is he not a singular being? And if I find it so difficult to please him now, what must I expect when I become his wife?"
"Tormenting girl!" exclaimed Edmund, "you know your power but too well."
"What ridiculous creatures these lords of the creation are!" said Elvira, playfully holding out her hand to Edmund, though she still affected to address Emma; "I really don't think any of them know what they would have; and I believe the only way to manage them is to make one's-self perfectly disagreeable."
"That you can never do," cried Edmund, rapturously kissing her hand.
At this moment a slight tap at the door announced the arrival of the duke and his friends.
"So, so!" said the duke, "we have found you, have we? but you must take your leave of such tender scenes for the future."
"What do you mean?" asked Edmund.
"The Queen is dead," said Sir Ambrose.
The glowing countenance of Edmund turned
