Hopetown by singing
a few passages from that beautiful ballad of the Scottish borders,
'Chevy Chase,' which had so delighted their own family party the
preceding evening."
He did not ask this "charmed resource" from his own betrothed,
because it was only at the close of that very preceding evening he
had for the first time heard her voice, "in sweetest melody,"
chanting forth the parting anthem for the night, "From the ends of
the earth, I will call upon thee, O Lord," and with tones of a
kindred pathos, too thrilling to a son's startled ear and memory, to
be invoked again in a mixed company.
Strange, indeed, it might be, but it was a sacred balm to his soul
when these recurring remembrances discovered to his heart in the
young and lovely future partner of his life a bond of union with that
angelic mother who had given him being; and perhaps this devoted
filial heart alone could appreciate the joy, the comfort, the bliss
of such a similitude! But in after days he shared those feelings with
his father, bringing to his regretful bosom a soothing perception of
the likeness.
Lady Albina instantly complied, casting a sweet glance at Sir Robert,
who immediately led her to the piano-forte, followed by the Scottish
merchant of the Baltic, whither the noble symphony of "The Douglas,"
"hound and horn," soon gathered the rest of the company.
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