Scarcely allowing an interval for respiration, with a volubility natural to her, but always more when she touched upon any favourite topic, she began by giving Rosilia a circumstantial detail of almost every event that had happened to her son since his quitting England; and as many occurrences relating to him were connected with Douglas, having had the lot to pursue their voyage in the same vessel, the name of each was frequently coupled with the other; and, in continuing her recital, she exclaimed with warmth: "Truly, my dear Rosilia, Edward adores you; here are more than two or three passages in his letter where he styles you his beloved Rosilia! 'Do not forget to speak of me—to recall me to the memory of my beloved Rosilia!'—such are his words."
The silence with which she was listened to was far from throwing any check upon the loquacious vivacity of Mrs. Herbert, considering it but as an effect arising from maiden diffidence.
"How rejoiced I shall be," she therefore added, "to see my dear boy home again—but that will not be until he obtains superior rank. In the meanwhile he is tolerably well off where he is; Calcutta is a fine station, provided he can escape the complaint so prevalent there, and which I believe, or some other malady, for he does not
