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DUTY AND INCLINATION.
307

I know all you would say, and more; it is not I from you, but you from me, who may look for information. The interview I have just had with Lord Deloraine has filled me with content, joy, and happiness. He has been ever the warm admirer of our child Rosilia, of which he has made me the most open acknowledgement; he is in a word, her warm and loving suitor, and will shortly become, by the good pleasure of the Supreme, her warm and loving husband."

In the fulness of their delight each happy parent embraced the other, and the General added, "You see, my dear, in such charming prospects opening upon us, in the happiness of one of our children, and in the liberality of poor Robert, the possibility of promoting that of the other, not to mention the enlargement of our own comforts, that if our union began in tears it is likely to end in smiles. Your dear respectable aunt Boville and her sister Mrs. Melbourne are about being informed, by our son-in-law who is to be, of his long-existing sentiments for our child,—and they will be, doubtless, quite enchanted with the idea of the wedding which will in consequence shortly take place. You can yourself apprise Oriana of it, but caution her not to intimate any of this new intelligence to her sister, whose mind must be kept calm, and at the present free from such topics,—as when well enough to appear amongst us. Lord Deloraine himself will make to her the disclosure of his hopes and wishes, and that in a manner