His appeal to
Mr. Wharton, for the propriety of this decision, was answered
affirmatively, as it would have been negatively, had the question been
put in a manner to lead to such a result. The owner of the Locusts had
lost the little energy he possessed, by the blow recently received
through his son, and his assent to the objection of the clergyman was as
easily obtained as had been his consent to the premature proposals of
Wellmere. In this stage of the dilemma, Miss Peyton and Frances
appeared. The surgeon of dragoons approached the former, and as he
handed her to a chair, observed,--
"It appears, madam, that untoward circumstances have prevented Colonel
Wellmere from providing all of the decorations that custom, antiquity,
and the canons of the church have prescribed, as indispensable to enter
into the honorable state of wedlock."
Miss Peyton glanced her quiet eye at the uneasy bridegroom, and
perceiving him to be adorned with what she thought sufficient splendor,
allowing for the time and the suddenness of the occasion, she turned her
look on the speaker, as if to demand an explanation.
The surgeon understood her wishes, and proceeded at once to gratify
them.
"There is," he observed, "an opinion prevalent, that the heart lies on
the left side of the body, and that the connection between the members
of that side and what may be called the seat of life is more intimate
than that which exists with their opposites.
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