could scarcely regret their absence, as it relieved them from all concerns relative to the late Baron, the removal of whose body seemed to take from them a heavy pressure, and a painful inquietude.
Count M——— began to feel some uneasiness, that the messenger he had dispatched to his estate did not return by the time expected, and blamed himself for sending him, as his own appearance would have answered every purpose: Eugenia was very desirous of entering on her new plan, but she could not take Ferdinand from the Count in his present frame of mind, nor did she wish that the latter should accompany her. The following day all their anxiety was done away by the arrival of the expected messenger, and with him the Count's faithful old steward, who had resisted every attempt, persuasion and temptation, of those persons who, being next in succession to the Count, had long since been desirous to profit by his absence, and, under a supposition of his death, to take possession of the estates.
