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DUTY AND INCLINATION.

be combating with an unhappy but unconquerable attachment to some one worthy of him, whom he would not reduce to indigence. I have often inwardly conjectured that this object might be your sister; and, if so, Philimore, indeed, must have severely struggled to bring himself to renounce a woman so accomplished; rather than by making her his own, reduce her to a level with his humble fortunes."

Rosilia replied not. Much as it was contrary to her character to act with deception, and much as she esteemed her venerable friend, who, whilst he spoke, had fixed upon her his penetrating eye; yet it was not for her to betray a confidence reposed in her, or reveal a secret concerning Philimore, who had not himself thought proper to divulge it.

"That secrets are a sacred trust,
That friends should be sincere and just,
    That constancy befits them."

Her drooping head, however, and the deepening hue of her cheeks, might have bore ample evidence to the Doctor that he had not been mistaken. He, however, changed the conversation to subjects various and edifying, while Rosilia looked upon him as the pattern of all goodness.

What can equal that calm delight of which the mind is sensible, when it rests in confidence, assimilates in thought, and looks for lessons of instruction from a being fraught with the highest intelligence; a being who, aspiring to the skies, feels no other tie so valu-