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"Honour me," cried he, "with a commission, and I will engage to discover, at least, whether that friend be yet at Brighthelmstone."
"And without naming for whom you seek her?" cried Ellis, her eyes brightening with sudden hope.
"Naming?" repeated he, with an arch smile.
She blushed, deeply, in recollecting herself; but, seized with a sudden dread of Elinor, drew back from her inadvertant acceptance; and, though warmly thanking him, declined his services; adding that, by waiting at Brighthelmstone, she must, ultimately, meet her friend, since all her letters and directions were for that spot.
Harleigh was palpably disappointed; and Ellis, hurt herself, opened her letter, to lessen, she told him, his wonder, perhaps censure, of her secresy, by reading to him its injunction. This was the sentence: "Seek, then, unnamed and unknown, during this dread
