THE BLACK DWARF.
275
CHAPTER XV.
He brings Earl Osmond to receive my vows.
O dreadful charge! for Tancred, haughty Osmond.
Tancred and Sigismund.
Mr Vere, whom long practice of dissimulation had enabled to model his very gait and footsteps to aid the purpose of deception, walked along the stone passage, and up the first flight of steps towards Miss Vere's apartment, with the alert, firm, and steady pace of one, who is bound, indeed, upon important business, but who entertains no doubt he can terminate his affairs satisfactorily. But when out of hearing of the gentlemen whom he had left, his step became so slow and irresolute, as to correspond with his doubts and
