Page:Duty and Inclination. Volume 3.pdf/310

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308
DUTY AND INCLINATION.

the best suited to a mind so delicately refined as hers."

The General having thus amplified upon the subject with something of the garrulity of advancing age and the communicative frankness of his character, we shall only add that Lord Deloraine became the successful and acknowledged suitor of the fair Rosiha. "Take her," said the General, "she is yours; and if I mistake not, her pure and virgin affections have been ever yours."

Sensible of a gladness of soul, of a joy of heart long a stranger to him, powerful emotions ran through the frame of His Lordship in raising the hand he held, and in pressing it upon his lips. From henceforth passing his days continually in the presence of his destined bride, how truly she was impressed upon his fancy, how much and how wholly his mind and heart were occupied with and directed towards her, was manifest in every affectionate glance, in every expression of his countenance: every polished, easy, and graceful gesture was alike correspondent to his internal harmony; his every softened accent seemed to say, Rosilia, how I love thee! And such were not the mere outward semblances of passion; they were the pleasing, the beautiful effects of true and genuine love,—of feelings arising from a grateful sense of happiness conferred, in finding himself beloved by her, from whom he once conceived his early irregularities had separated him for ever!

As a stream, clear and bright, becomes foul with