You profess, Mr.Tyrrel, to lay aside all selfish wishes and views in this matter, and to look entirely to Miss Mowbray's safety and happiness ?" "Such, upon my honour, is the exclusive purpose of my interference--I would give all I am worth to procure her an hour of quiet--for happiness she will never know again." "Your anticipations of Miss Mowbray's distress," said Jekyl, "are, I understand, founded upon the character of my friend.

You think him a man of light principle, and because he overreached you in a juvenile intrigue, you conclude that now, in his more steady and advanced years, the happiness of the lady in whom you are so much interested ought not to be trusted to him ?" "There may be other grounds," said Tyrrel, hastily; "but you may argue upon those you have named, as sufficient to warrant my interference." "How, then, if I should propose some accommodation of this nature?
Lord Etherington does not pretend to the ardour of a passionate lover.

He lives much in the world, and has no desire to quit it.

Miss Mowbray's health is delicate--her spirits variable--and retirement would most probably be her choice .-- Suppose--I am barely putting a supposition--suppose that a marriage between two persons so circumstanced were rendered necessary or advantageous to both--suppose that such a marriage were to secure to one party a large estate--were to insure the other against all the consequences of an unpleasant exposure--still, both ends might be obtained by the mere ceremony of marriage passing between them.

There might be a previous contract of separation, with suitable provisions for the lady, and stipulations, by which the husband should renounce all claim to her society.