Cavendish would remain
at the Abbey until Lady Albina's return to the Wolds.
Mr. Somerset being gone, towards noon, when the count was anxiously
awaiting the appearance of the physician from the room of the new
invalid, he was disappointed by the abrupt entrance of two gentlemen.
He rose, and with his usual courtesy to strangers, inquired their
business? The elder of the men, with a fierce countenance and a voice
of thunder, announced himself to be the Earl of Tinemouth, and the
other his son.
"We are come," said he, standing at a haughty distance--"we are come
to carry from this nest of infamy Lady Albina Stanhope, whom some one
of her mother's paramours--perhaps you, sir--dared to steal from her
father's home yesterday evening. And I am come to give you, sir, who
I guess to be some fugitive vagabond! the chastisement your audacity
deserves."
With difficulty the Count Sobieski suppressed the passions which were
rising in his breast. He turned a scornful glance on the person of
Lord Harwold (who, with an air of insufferable derision, was coolly
measuring his figure through an eyeglass); and then, replying to the
earl, said, in a firm voice, "My lord, whoever you suppose me to be,
it matters not; I now stand in the place of Lady Tinemouth's
confidential friend, and to my last gasp I will prove myself the
defender of he injured name.
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