On Amabel's appearance he made an effort to rise, but she hastened to prevent him.

After thanking her for her kind inquiries, he entered into a long conversation with her, in the course of which he displayed sentiments so exactly coinciding with her own, that the good opinion she had already begun to entertain for him was soon heightened into the liveliest interest.

They parted, to meet again on the following day--and on the day following that.

The bloom returned to the earl's countenance, and he looked handsomer than ever.

A week thus passed, and at the end of it, he said--"To-morrow I shall be well enough to venture forth again, and my first business shall be to proceed to your father, and see whether he is now able to receive you." "The plague has not yet abated, my lord," she observed, blushingly.
"True," he replied, looking passionately at her.