I might have spared
you these inconveniences and risks, by getting another second; but I
knew you wouldn't stand that."
And there, indeed, he spoke the truth.
CHAPTER XXI.
_The Last, and Most Eventful, of the History._
I took my mother and Fanny to the play that night, to see Madge act,
and we three met her after the performance and were driven to her
lodgings with her. I then bade the ladies good-night, with a secret
tenderness arising from the possibility, unknown to them, that our
parting then might be for as many months as they supposed hours.
Returning to Philip at the tavern, I found he had passed the evening
in writing letters; among others, one for me to copy in my own name,
to be left at Madge's lodgings in case of my having to flee the
country for awhile. It was so phrased that the result of the duel,
whether in Philip's death or his antagonist's, could be told by the
insertion of a single line, after its occurrence.
Phil and I rose betimes the next morning, and went by hackney-coach,
in the darkness, to a place in the Oxford road, near Tyburn; where we
left our conveyance waiting, and proceeded afoot to the chosen spot in
the Park.
No one was there when we arrived, and we paced to and fro together to
keep in exercise, talking in low voices, and beguiling our agitation
by confining our thoughts to a narrow channel. The sod was cool and
soft to our tread, and the smell of the leaves was pleasant to our
nostrils.
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