The Major and his son and daughter were solitary units in the midst
of the groups of portly citizens, with soberly handsome wives, and
gay sons and daughters, who were exchanging greetings; and on their
return to their hotel, the Major betook himself to a pipe in the bar,
and Eugene was allowed to go for a walk in the park with Palmer, while
Betty sat in her own room with her Bible, striving to strengthen her
assurance that the innocent would never be forsaken. Indeed Mr.
Belamour had much strengthened her grounds of hope and comfort by his
testimony to poor Aurelia's perfect guilelessness and simplicity
throughout the affair. Yet the echo of that girl's chatter about
Lady Belle's rival being sent beyond the sea would return upon her
ominously, although it might be mere exaggeration and misapprehension,
like so much besides.
A great clock, chiming one, warned her to repair to the sitting-room,
where she met Eugene, full of the unedifying spectacle of a fight
between two street lads. There had been a regular ring, and the boy
had been so much excited that Palmer had had much ado to bring him
away. Betty had scarcely hushed his eager communications and repaired
his toilette for dinner before Sir Amyas came in, having hurried away
as soon as possible after attending his men to and from church.
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