The look of anxiety and suspense accompanying these few words, penetrated the heart of Oriana, and excited in her emotions, nearly equal to his.
"Stay, do not leave me, I conjure you!" he again exclaimed.
Her mother and sister having probably reached home, and finding she had nothing to apprehend from detection, she conducted him to a spot more distant from the cottage; Philimore, in the interval, ejaculating, "Every instant of time is precious! tomorrow,—good heavens!—tomorrow, and I shall be far from you;" here articulation failed him.
They proceeded to the little thicket in which Philimore had found himself previously to seeing Oriana, whose strength, from the tumult of her feelings, failing her, she sunk on a mossy bank, while he, endeavouring to compose himself and to reassure her, dwelt upon the distress in which he was plunged on account of the cruel mandate he had that morning received from his father, and spoke with tender eloquence of the deprivation he was about to sustain in the loss of her society.
Oriana, on her part, confiding and affectionate, sought not to disguise the pain such afflicting tidings created; neither could any notions of discretion, nor policy, nor even that just pride and
