Act 5 — CHAPTER VI.

For the first time for many weeks, Lucia once more left her chamber, and was able to receive the congratulatory visits of her friends. It was not long ere Mr. Gadsby took advantage of her convalescence to express in person his own pleasure at her recovered health.

She had never looked more lovely in his eyes than when he thus met her. If, at the moment when he first looked upon her, her paleness pained him, the bright color which instantly mantled her cheek, and the agitation of her manner, sent a thrill of happiness to his heart. He took her small, attenuated hand, and pressed it tenderly, as, in an agitated voice, he told the happiness it gave him to see her again; and as Lucia raised her eyes to reply, she saw his fine countenance beaming with an expression which deepened her bloom and increased her embarrassment.

“You have been very kind, Mr. Gadsby, during my illness,” she said, at length, averting her face, “and I have to thank you for the many beautiful flowers with which you have cheered my sick chamber.”

These kind words from her—from the proud Lucia, rendered Gadsby almost beside himself with joy.

“Do not thank me for so trifling a favor, when, if I could, I would so gladly have poured out my life’s blood to have saved you a moment’s pain! O, my dear Miss Laurence—”

Now spare me, kind reader; I was never good at a love scene. Only just fancy as pretty a declaration of love as you ever listened to, or poured from your own throbbing heart, and you will have the result of Mr. Gadsby’s interview with the fair Lucia, the self-styled “champion of her sex”—yet proving herself a recreant, after all her boasting; for I have been told, confidentially, that, so far from spurning this “hollow-breasted Frank Gadsby” from her feet, when Miss Atwood rather abruptly entered the drawing-room, she actually found her with her beautiful head resting on his shoulder, while his manly arm was thrown around her delicate waist—you must remember she was an invalid, and required support!

There is a snug little house not a stone’s throw from the residence of Mr. Laurence. It is furnished with perfect neatness and taste, and there, loving and beloved, our two coquettes have settled themselves down, in the practice of those domestic virtues and kindly affections which contribute so largely to the happiness of life. Frank Gadsby is now respected as an able lawyer, and bids fair to attain to great eminence in his profession; and never did Lucia, even in the most brilliant assembly, receiving the homage of so many eyes and hearts, look more lovely than now, as in her neat morning dress, with her beautiful hair in “braided tramels ’bout her daintie ears,” and

“Household motions light and free,

And steps of virgin liberty,”

she goes about dispensing order in her cherished home.