She understood the hint,
howsoever strangely communicated, and, by stepping to one side of
the room gave him an opportunity of slipping the epistle into her
hand, which be gently squeezed at the same time in token of regard:
then throwing a side-glance at the mother, whose back was turned,
clapped his finger on the side of his nose, thereby recommending
secrecy and discretion.
Emilia, conveying the letter into her bosom, could not help smiling
at Tom's politeness and dexterity; but lest her mamma should
detect him in the execution of his pantomime, she broke off this
intercourse of signs, by asking aloud when he proposed to set out
on his return to Winchester? When he answered, "To-morrow morning."
Miss Gauntlet recommended him to the hospitality of her own footman,
desiring him to make much of Mr. Pipes below, where he was kept to
supper, and very cordially entertained. Our young heroine, impatient
to read her lover's billet, which made her heart throb with rapturous
expectation, retired to her chamber as soon as possible, with a
view of perusing the contents, which were these:--
"Divine Empress Of My Soul,--If the refulgent flames of your
beauty had not evaporated the particles of my transported
brain, and scorched my intellects into a cinder of stolidity,
perhaps the resplendency of my passion might shine illustrious
through the sable curtain of my ink, and in sublimity transcend
the galaxy itself, though wafted on the pinions of a gray goose
quill! But, ah! celestial enchantress! the necromancy of thy
tyrannical charms hath fettered my faculties with adamantine
chains, which, unless thy compassion shall melt I must eternally
remain in the Tartarean gulf of dismal despair.
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