His inamorata, as usual, was very inquisitive to learn the
business that was to deprive her for a time of the presence of a lover, of
whom she was not a little ostentatious. Sir William answered that he was
under an engagement to be present at the marriage of one of his college
friends, and that he should set out in company with Mr. Moreland.
At that name our tender and apprehensive fair one involuntarily started.
"Mr. Moreland!" said she to herself, "Ah, it was at his house that my
unknown resided. It is very seldom that Mr. Moreland undertakes a journey.
Surely there must be something particularly interesting to him in the
affair. The strange combination of circumstances terrifies and perplexes
me. Would I were delivered from this state of uncertainty! Would to God I
were dead!"
The uncertainty which afflicted her was however of a very short duration.
Miss Fletcher, by an inexhaustible train of interrogatories, led sir
William to relate by degrees every thing he knew of the affair. The young
gentleman his friend was the nephew and heir of Mr. Moreland. The present
match had been long upon the carpet, and was a very considerable one in
point of fortune. "Did the nephew ever visit Mr. Moreland?" "Very
frequently," said sir William. "And he is visited" interposed Delia, "by
other young gentlemen from the university?" "No," answered sir William.
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