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DUTY AND INCLINATION.
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remove. Interminable seas were about separating him from her, and yet, under every discouraging idea, he cherished his present sufferings and memory of the past, as a miser hoards his secret treasure; his, he felt persuaded, was no fugitive passion—it was a noble sentiment, it was love for a virtuous object engrafted on his heart,—such as gave energy to his feelings, and made every degrading or unworthy passion sink before his view.

He had been at one time tempted to urge his point again; he had even communicated his sentiments to a person who might have aided him, one intimately known to Rosilia, but whom he had entreated to no purpose; he had even commenced a letter to Rosilia, but he had neither decision nor resolution to send it, perhaps to meet with suppression, or if not, to bring upon him a second dismission. How stoop to solicit her compassion, ere the opportunity had been given him to merit her? He would embark with his regiment,—he would exert himself in his country's cause, no matter how remote or foreign the land upon which fate might throw him; all was alike indifferent to him, if unblessed with Rosilia!

It was by one of those strange coincidences in human events, that Douglas and the young Her-