private apartment assigned her, Rosilia, in much perturbation, joined her.
"Whom do you think I have seen, my dear mother," said she, "of all persons in the world I should have the least desired to have seen?—Mr. Melliphant!"
The distressed accents in which these words were spoken, caused her mother to suspend the arrangements she was making.
"My dear," replied she, turning hastily about, "you may be mistaken; I can hardly think you have seen Mr. Melliphant, but somebody, doubtless, who resembles him; your father, from good authority, having heard that, to shun the importunities of his creditors, he some time since fled from the kingdom."
"But the gait, air, and figure," returned Rosilia, "were so completely his, that I feel persuaded I could not be mistaken."
She then accurately described his manner of passing, and of noticing the dog that was with her.
"Extraordinary as it may seem," added Mrs. De Brooke, "I am still of opinion, by his not addressing you, that your sight deceived you."
Nearly doubting her faculty of vision, Rosilia began to hope it might be as her mother said.
"Besides," rejoined Mrs. De Brooke, "quiet your mind, my dear, on that score; for whether it was Melliphant or not, detected as his views and character recently have been, you have nothing more to apprehend from him, or his further persecution of you."
