midnight
If so , there will be some triumph in undeceiving her error and rewarding her generosity ; if not , I shall be saved from involving my happiness with that of one who looks only to my worldly possessions . I owe it to her , it is true , to show her that I am no low-born pretender : but I owe it also to myself to ascertain if my own individual qualities are sufficient to gain her hand . '' Fraught with these ideas , which were natural enough to a man whose peculiar circumstances were well calculated to make him feel rather soured and suspicious , and whose pride had been severely wounded by the contempt with which his letter had been treated , Clarence walked into the park , and , hovering around the house , watched and waited that opportunity of addressing Lady Flora , which he trusted her habits of walking would afford him ; but hours rolled away , the evening set in , and Lady Flora had not once quitted the house . More disappointed and sick at heart than he liked to confess , Clarence returned to his inn , took his solitary meal , and strolling once more into the park , watched beneath the windows till midnight , endeavouring to guess which were the casements of her apartments , and feeling his heart beat high at every light which flashed forth and disappeared , and every form which flitted across the windows of the great staircase . Little did Lady Flora , as she sat in her room alone , and , in tears , mused over Clarence 's fancied worthlessness and infidelity , and told her heart again and again that she loved no more , -- little did she know whose eye kept vigils without , or whose feet brushed away the rank dews beneath her windows , or whose thoughts , though not altogether unmingled with reproach , were riveted with all the ardour of a young and first love upon her . It was unfortunate for Linden that he had no opportunity of personally pleading his suit ; his altered form and faded countenance would at least have insured a hearing and an interest for his honest though somewhat haughty sincerity : but though that day , and the next , and the next , were passed in the most anxious and unremitting vigilance , Clarence only once caught a glimpse of Lady Flora , and then she was one amidst a large party ; and Clarence , fearful of a premature and untimely discovery , was forced to retire into the thicknesses of the park , and lose the solitary reward of his watches almost as soon as he had won it . Wearied and racked by his suspense , and despairing of obtaining any favourable opportunity for an interview without such a request , Clarence at last resolved to write to Lady Flora , entreating her assent to a meeting , in which he pledged himself to clear up all that had hitherto seemed doubtful in his conduct or mysterious in his character .