had twice become the dupe of Sir Howard, in obeying his call, and descending to the parlour to hear what was of no manner of importance, and being kept at home from accompanying her daughter to Mrs. Belmour, on account of his promised introduction to Sir Arthur Melliphant, a distant cousin it appeared of his friend, whose country seat, he said, was not far removed from the borders of Glamorgan. Such had been his tale, whether true or otherwise it was impossible for her at that moment to ascertain, not having fulfilled his engagement, sending for excuse at a late hour in the evening that he had not been able to meet with the Baronet. If it was not a fiction, she feared those men might avail themselves, the one of his relationship, and the other of his intimacy with Sir Arthur and his family, to draw near and molest them, in the retirement of their Bower. The consideration exceedingly distressed her; but never, she was determined, would she again countenance the visits of either.
Douglas we have seen rejected by Rosilia, at a time when her mind was enslaved by the tyrannical influence of opposite feelings, her reason being at variance with her affections. It was the painful disunion between those mental powers which discovered to her the fatal weakness which, with such soft and insensible steps, had stolen in upon and deprived her of happiness. When more alarmed at the intrusion of this wrong bias of her inclinations than desirous of indulging them, she formed the heroic resolve of acting
