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DUTY AND INCLINATION.
115

so sweet an expression of tender sensibility, as convinced me she possessed a soul of no common mould.

"The good man regarded her with looks of the most benign affection, but mingled with that painful solicitude, disclosing to me that Angelina was the innocent cause of burthening her father's heart with keen oppression. Unhappy man! Thus did I interpret the language of his thoughts. Alas! he felt conscious that his weak frame was verging towards its parent dust; that his spirit would soon rejoin his consort; and what would become of his angelic child? so young, so fair!—and must she be left an orphan, friendless and forlorn, unprotected in an unfeeling world, exposed to those precipices and quicksands which surround the innocent? Tears glistened in the eyes of the venerable parent: such must have been his thoughts.

"I was deeply affected, and turned to conceal also my starting tear.

"Fear not, most excellent, most respectable of men! thou and thy daughter have kindled that interest in my heart, that when thou hast departed to the bright realms of eternal bliss, I will be a parent to thy child,—her friend, her brother: yes! and if she would yield to me her gentle heart, perhaps her husband. But should another be blest