"
Munro advanced and addressed her with some sternness--"Why are you
abroad, Lucy, and at this hour? why this disquietude, and what has
alarmed you?--why have you left your chamber?"
The uncle did not obtain, nor indeed did he appear to expect, any answer
to his inquiries. In the meanwhile, Rivers held possession of her arm,
and she continued fruitlessly struggling for some moments in his grasp,
referring at length to the speaker for that interference which he now
appeared slow to manifest.
"Oh, sir! will you suffer me to be treated thus--will you not make this
man undo his hold, and let me retire to my chamber?"
"You should have been there long before this, Lucy," was the reply, in a
grave, stern accent. "You must not complain, if, found thus, at
midnight, in a part of the building remote from your chamber, you should
be liable to suspicions of meddling with things which should not concern
you."
"Come, mistress--pray answer to this. Where have you been to-night--what
doing--why abroad? Have you been eavesdropping--telling tales--hatching
plots?"
The natural ferocity of Rivers's manner was rather heightened by the
tone which he assumed.
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