Chapter VI

Take him for all in all,
We ne'er shall look upon his like again.--SHAKESPEARE.

BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND EDUCATION OF OUR HERO.--AN ASPIRING
PORTER.--ECLAIRCISSEMENT.

Lord Theodore De Willoughby was the son of Lord De Willoughby, of
De Willoughby Castle. After having graduated at Oxford, he took,
not alone a tour of the Orkney Islands, but an opportunity of
saving our heroine's life. Hence their mutual attachment. About the
same time, Count Stiletto had conceived a design against that poor
orphan; and dreading Lord Theodore as a rival, waylaid and
imprisoned him.

But to return.

Next morning, the lovers woke in full possession of their
faculties, when the happiest _denouement_ took place. Hysterica
told Theodore that she had extricated herself from the snow, at
the risk of her life. In fact, she was obliged to pelt it away in
balls, and Theodore now recollected having been hit with one,
during his search for her. Fearful of returning to the castle, she
walked _à Londres_; and officiated there in the respective
capacities of cook, milliner, own woman, and washerwoman. Her
honour too, was untarnished, though a hulking porter had paid her
the most delicate attentions, and assured her that Theodore was
married to cruel Barbara Allen.

Theodore called down several stars to witness his unalterable love;
and, as a farther proof of the fact, offered to marry her the next
day.

Her former scruples (the mysterious circumstances of her birth)
being now removed, she beamed an inflammatory glance, and
consented. He deposited a kiss on her cheek, and a blush was the
rosy result. He therefore repeated the application.