degrees a calm delight pervade her, as if in the presence of one whose soul was purified, and who seemed to regard her with a chaste tenderness, with looks and accents of conciliating softness, Rosilia asked how long he had returned from India.
"But a few months since," was the answer; and which entirely accorded with the idea which had struck her, that it was certainly Douglas whom she had seen on crutches, when passing on quickly to the house of Mrs. Belmour, and whose exclamation, so flattering, had sounded in a voice so familiar to her ear.
She then asked whether it was the pernicious effects of the climate which had induced him to leave the country.
"No; not so," was his hasty reply.
He was about adding, he had been wounded, but his voice faltered,—an association of thought, in connection with his wound and Harcourt, who, like himself, was the warm and fervent lover of Rosilia, and consequently his rival, had suffused with crimson the cheeks of Douglas, and might well denote some deep and distressing feelings possessed his mind.
Regretting to have put the question, Rosilia changed the subject; when Mrs. Melbourne remarked, that, as she resided in the neighbourhood, it would give her great pleasure to extend her acquaintance to the General and Mrs. De Brooke.
