Day by day Mr.Corbet's spirits flagged.

He was, however, so generally uniform in the tenor of his talk--never very merry, and always avoiding any subject that might call out deep feeling either on his own or any one else's part, that few people were aware of his changes of mood.

Ellinor felt them, though she would not acknowledge them: it was bringing her too much face to face with the great terror of her life.
One morning he announced the fact of his brother's approaching marriage; the wedding was hastened on account of some impending event in the duke's family; and the home letter he had received that day was to bid his presence at Stokely Castle, and also to desire him to be at home by a certain time not very distant, in order to look over the requisite legal papers, and to give his assent to some of them.

He gave many reasons why this unlooked-for departure of his was absolutely necessary; but no one doubted it.

He need not have alleged such reiterated excuses.