"
A glance of Miss Peyton's eye recalled Colonel Wellmere to a sense of
his duty, and springing from his chair, he assured the surgeon that in
no way could he confer a greater obligation on himself than by sending
for that very ring. The operator bowed a little haughtily, and withdrew
to fulfill his promise, by dispatching a messenger on the errand. The
aunt suffered him to retire; but unwillingness to admit a stranger into
the privacy of their domestic arrangements induced her to follow and
tender the services of Caesar, instead of those of Sitgreaves' man, who
had volunteered for this duty. Katy Haynes was accordingly directed to
summon the black to the vacant parlor, and thither Miss Peyton and the
surgeon repaired, to give their several instructions.
The consent to this sudden union of Sarah and Wellmere, and especially
at a time when the life of a member of the family was in such imminent
jeopardy, was given from a conviction that the unsettled state of the
country would probably prevent another opportunity to the lovers of
meeting, and a secret dread on the part of Mr. Wharton, that the death
of his son might, by hastening his own, leave his remaining children
without a protector. But notwithstanding Miss Peyton had complied with
her brother's wish to profit by the accidental visit of a divine, she
had not thought it necessary to blazon the intended nuptials of her
niece to the neighborhood, had even time been allowed; she thought,
therefore, that she was now communicating a profound secret to the
negro, and her housekeeper.
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