Here he became acquainted with the palatine, and the
lovely Countess Therese, his daughter. Her beauty pleased his taste;
her gentle virtues and exquisite accomplishments affected both his
heart and mind; and he often gazed on her with tenderness, when his
fidelity to Edith Beaufort only meant him to convey a look of
grateful admiration. The palatine honored England, and was prepared
to esteem her sons wherever he might meet them; and very soon he
became so attached to this apparently lonely young traveller, that he
invited him to all the excursions he and his daughter made into the
adjoining states, whether visiting them by the romantic scenery of
the land-roads, or coasting the beautiful bays of the sublime shores
on either side of those parts of the Mediterranean.
In the midst of this intimacy, as if she were aware of a friendship
so hostile to his cousin's love, he suddenly ceased to receive any
remembrance-messages from her to him, in the two last letters from
his brother,--for he had never allowed himself to so brave his
father's parting commands as to write to her himself. Desperate with
jealousy of some unknown object supplanting him, he was on the point
of setting off for home, to judge with his own eyes, when a large
packet from England was put into his hands. On opening it he found a
letter from Edith, on which his surprised and eager gaze had
immediately fixed.
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