I shall leave Deerhurst immediately,
and England as soon as I am able to embark."
Thaddeus with a second bow, and not quite so firm a step, without
venturing a glance at what he supposed must be the abashed or the
enraged looks of Pembroke's father, was preparing to quit the room,
when Sir Robert, with a pale and ghastly countenance, exclaimed,
"Stop!"
Thaddeus looked round, and struck by the change in his preserver's
appearance, paused in his movement. The baronet, incapable of saying
more, pointed to a chair for him to sit down; then sinking into
another himself, took out his handkerchief, and wiping away the large
drops which stood on his forehead, panted for respiration. At last,
with a desperate kind of haste, he said.
"Was your mother indeed Therese Sobieski?"
Thaddeus, still more astonished, replied in the affirmative. Sir
Robert threw himself back on the chair with a deep groan. Hardly
knowing what he did, the count rose from his seat and advanced
towards him. On his approach, Sir Robert stretched out his hand, and,
with a look and tone of agony, said, "Who was your father?" He then,
without waiting for a reply, covered his convulsed features with his
handkerchief. The baronet's agitation, which now shook him like an
earthquake, became contagious. Thaddeus gazed at him with a palsying
uncertainty in his heart; laying his hand on his bewildered brain, he
answered, "I know not; yet I fear I must believe him to be the Earl
of Tinemouth.
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