"
"Well then, friend, this cloud has been lifted up, and this is the
surprise which awaited your return home. Camilla has been married
more than a year."
"Married'" cried the major, joyfully; "who is the happy man that has
undertaken to tame this wilful child, and warm her cold heart?"
"Ask rather, who is the unhappy man who was enamoured with this
lovely face, and has taken a demon for an angel?" sighed Louise. "He
is a young, distinguished, and wealthy Englishman, Lord Elliot, an
attache of the English embassy, who fulfilled the duties of minister
during the absence of the ambassador, Lord Mitchel, who was
generally at the headquarters of the king."
"And Camilla, did she love him?"
Louise shrugged her shoulders.
"When he made his proposals, she declared herself ready to marry
him; but, I believe, his presence was less agreeable and interesting
to her than the splendid gifts he daily brought her."
"But, Louise, it was her free choice to marry him? You did not
persuade her? you did not, I hope, in order to humor my weakness,
induce her by entreaties and representations to marry against her
will?"
"My friend," said Louise, with the proud air of an injured mother,
"however fondly I may have loved you, I would not have sacrificed
for you the happiness of an only child.
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