Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 3).djvu/105

This page needs to be proofread.

grieved for the ill-treated Louisa. Yet it appeared very unaccountable to him that the Count should think of paying his address to another lady, when his recent marriage at Ulm could not be forgotten; and when his uncle was so well acquainted with all those circumstances, was it not natural to suppose that Mr. D'Alenberg would take care to be well informed of the character and connexions of a man with whom he entrusted the happiness of his daughter, previous to the marriage; and if he had made any investigation, by what means had the Count escaped detection, or how could any man expect that he should go unpunished, or not be exposed by those he had already deceived?

In short, the conduct and character of the Count was strange and inexplicable to him; the more he sought to penetrate into either, the more he was puzzled to account for his baseness and folly. Reflecting deliberately on the story of Louisa, he traced the misfortunes of her father to an imprudent marriage in early life, and the subsequent distress of