"
"I know not how it is," replied Alice; "but I felt that the expression
of his eye, during our last interview, oppressed me excessively; it was
never off me. There was a killing--a malignant influence in it, that
thrilled through me with pain; but, perhaps, I can account for that.
As it is, he has asked leave to visit us as usual, and to stand, with
respect to me, in the light of a friend only. So far as I am concerned,
papa, I could not refuse him a common privilege of civility; but,
to tell you both the truth, I shall always meet him not only with
reluctance, but with something almost amounting to fear."
Woodward, now that he had learned his fate, and was aware that his
brother stood between him and his expectations, experienced a feeling of
vengeance against him and Alice, which he neither could, nor attempted
to, restrain. The rage of his mother, too, when she heard that the
latter had rejected him, and avowed her attachment to Charles, went
beyond all bounds. Her son, however, who possessed a greater restraint
upon his feelings, and was master of more profound hypocrisy and
cunning, requested her to conceal the attachment of Alice to his
brother, as a matter not to be disclosed on any account.
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