The count
did not recollect the circumstance of having seen the good doctor
there; but the venerable man recapitulated the scene in the coffee-
room through which the count had passed, describing, with no little
animation, "a pedantic mannered person, dressed in black, and wearing
spectacles (whose name he afterwards learned was Loftus), an M.A. of
one of the colleges, who took the liberty to make some not very
liberal remarks on the number of noble strangers then confiding
themselves to the honorable sanctuary and sympathy of our country."
Pembroke could hardly hear the benevolent speaker to the end;
stifling any audible expression of his re-awakened indignation, he
whispered to the baronet, "My dear father! recent happy events have
made us almost forget that villain's baseness; but I pray, let him
not remain another week a blot upon our house's escutcheon."
"All shall be done as you wish," returned his father, in the same
subdued tone; "but let us remember how much of that recent happiness
the goodness of Providence hath brought out of this wretched man's
offence. Were I extreme to mark what is done amiss, how could I abide
the sentence that might be justly pronounced against myself? To-
morrow we will talk over this matter, and settle it, I trust, with
satisfaction to all parties."
Pembroke gratefully pressed his father's hand, and then, walking up
the room, addressed Mrs.
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