man, however, appears the most secure from danger, and the soul in its soft abandonment resigns itself to the stillness of repose; then suddenly, as clouds gather in the horizon, darken to gloom, nor lighten without the flash of the angry thunderbolt; so some fatal calamity, breaking forth in its strength, falls the heavier, desolating the heart, in proportion as, though not unforeseen in its approach, its effect is instantaneous.
Mrs. De Brooke was sometimes in the habit of absenting herself for a few hours in the forenoon, accompanied by Robert and her son Aubrey. Thus, one morning, in leaving her husband, she gave her daughters in charge to him. Scarcely was she gone, and De Brooke, in tender concern to her injunctions, was watching over his children, than he was interrupted by a visit from the Baronet. Though somewhat unprepared for his calling at so early an hour, yet he was not the less welcome. Leaving his little girls in play with each other, he stepped with him into the opposite chamber, where, as soon as seated, the Baronet entered upon the business which had brought him. With looks of consternation, and every degree of plausibility accompanying his words, he spoke of an immediate and pressing necessity, much to the distress of De Brooke, begging for the loan of
