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ject, and to diverge into the commonplace interests of daily life.
Captain Merton was precisely in this uncomfortable and perplexing position; his task was made the more difficult undoubtedly from the way in which his last observation had been received, but it must be performed notwithstanding, and no amount of delay would make it much easier than it was that moment.
'I don't know anything about the game,' he replied therefore, 'it was about something else, dear uncle, I wished to speak to you.' He paused, and his voice faltered slightly, and his colour came, though his brow grew fixed and determined as he went on, - 'it was about Elsmore.'
His uncle's face darkened visibly again, but he did not speak.
'It was about Elsmore, sir,' the young man proceeded, 'that I wished to speak to you, and about one of its inhabitants; had I seen one shadow of reason for the unaccountable prejudice which you entertain against the family, I could never have continued an intimacy with it, which, as you know, was commenced involuntarily; on the contrary, however, each succeeding day has shown me in it some fresh trait of simplicity and goodness, and such true nobility as had you, dear uncle, accepted Lord Elsmore's overtures to your acquaintance, you would long since yourself have been the first to acknowledge.'
'To what is all this long preamble leading, Charles; has your young friend, Lord Bertrand, condescended to borrow a cool hundred or two, and cannot you transact the business without your rich uncle's intervention,' said the old man, with a bitter smile, 'for this,' he added, 'is the common end and object of such intimaces as yours and his, the son of a London merchant with the son of an English earl.'
'My mother's family was as noble as his own,' exclaimed the young man.
Uncle Peter trembled and turned pale, and grasped rigidly the arms of his cushionless chair. Captain Merton saw at once the impropriety of an exclamation addressed to his paternal uncle; but it was no moment