A TALE OF CONSCIENCE. BY E. C. A. VOL. III. "In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas." LONDON: PUBLISHED BY CHARLES DOLMAN, (NEPHEW AND SUCCESSOR TO THE LATE JOSEPH BOOKER,) 61, NEW BOND STREET. MDCCCXXXIX. GERALDINE. A TALE OF CONSCIENCE, CHAPTER I. "The retrospective glance Of pensive memory fell, with the gleam NINE years after the events recorded in our preceding volumes, in the opening spring of 183-, the bells were ringing merrily in a sea-port town of our western coast, a band of music played on the pier, and in the placid waters of the harbour, vessels were lying at anchor, while the chief object of interest appeared to be a steamer, which, for the first time, was destined to carry passengers and freight to the Sister Isle. Several of these passengers were parading the pier, together with the idle and curious of the town. "She ought, by rights, to have started to-day," said a sailor, in reply to the question of a stranger of noble and foreign appearance; "but it's all well as it is, for a large party of the passengers don't come into town till to-night." VOL. III. B "Do you chance to know at which of the hotels this party is expected?" said the stranger. "No, sir," replied the sailor. "Nor the number of the party?" "There are four, I believe, sir, expected on board. Can you give something, sir, to a poor tar, that's been wounded in honorable service! Thank ye, sir. I'll be sure to find out the party for you, sir, whenever they may put up; but then where am I to find you, sir?" The stranger wrote in pencil his temporary address on a visiting card, and throwing it to the sailor, turned from him and from the motley throng, fixing his eyes upon the steamer, in deep, and apparently, melancholy thought; till, at length, roused by the national air, now played by the band, as they passed him in their march from the pier, he caught an object of engrossing interest in a travelling equipage, advancing with rapid pace from the north road, and traced its progress to the principal hotel of the place. This rencontre, however, produced only disappointment, for the expected passengers of the Royal Victoria steam-packet were still far from the town of * * Their travelling carriage had, on the preceding evening, stopped at a little inn near the convent gates of N-, and shortly after, one of the nuns had been summoned to the convent parlour, to welcome a long-absent friend. Nine |