Ernest Maltravers Book IX by Edward Bulwer-lytton

"On some fond breast the parting soul relies. " -- GRAY.

NOT a day passed in which Maltravers was absent from the side of Florence. He came early, he went late. He subsided into his former character of an accepted suitor, without a word of explanation with Lord Saxingham. That task was left to Florence. She doubtless performed it well, for his lordship seemed satisfied though grave, and, almost for the first time in his life, sad. Maltravers never reverted to the cause of their unhappy dissension. Nor from that night did he once give way to whatever might be his more agonised and fierce emotions -- he never affected to reproach himself -- he never bewailed with a vain despair their approaching separation. Whatever it cost him, he stood collected and stoical in the intense power of his self control. He had but one object, one desire, one hope -- to save the last hours of Florence Lascelles from every pang -- to brighten and smooth the passage across the Solemn Bridge.