DUTY AND INCLINATION.
CHAPTER I.
"O ye pure inmates of the gentle breast,
Truth, Freedom, Love, O where is your abode?"
Beattie.
Through the medium of a servant who had been sent from the Park to London, Oriana had been made acquainted with the illness of Philimore, who lay extended on the bed of sickness, while she was denied the gratification of watching by his side; the poignancy of her affliction being aggravated by the idea that she had been herself the cause of his illness, arising doubtless from cold caught on the day of their last interview. In the agony of her soul, she was at one time tempted to fly to him, to allow no hindrance to stop her; and by so doing, reveal at once, undisguisedly and publicly, the claims he held upon her.
