Sir Harold, since his taste for travelling had returned, was become very inquisitive respecting the affairs of the continent; and as every thing yielded before the warm creations of his fancy, the peace of Europe was soon settled. Italy was restored among its rightful owners, and travelling was rendered equally commodious and secure. To see how far the public accounts promised in time to realize these sanguine plans, Matilda was / constantly required to read him the news of the day; and the uneasiness and constraint she endured, when so employed, became every moment more insupportable. Whenever the name of Strathallan met her eye; that name which spoke such volumes to her heart; that name, which seemed to stand apart from all others, and to irradiate, with the single light of the characters which composed it, the page in which it was found; she was obliged to assume a composure the most foreign to her feelings, to check the blush, to curb the sigh; if possible, even to restrain the start of sudden anguish when his danger was the theme; for still, as she read, the eyes of her cousin were fixed on her, with a scrutiny so severe, that she dreaded his penetration, and the starts of phrenzy that were too often the consequence of it.

Yet this terror was again subdued and melted into pity, when she listened to the delusions in which her ill-fated relative indulged; and which seemed to promise him years of variety and amusement, while his exhausted health refused to ratify the flattering hope.

‘Your songs ever delighted me, my lovely cousin,’ he said, 'but when I have been in Italy, I will bring you back so much music from that land of witchery and Syren strains, that you will be forced to own the powers of your voice lay dormant till then.