200
DUTY AND INCLINATION.
his perfect sincerity. With a smile of satisfaction at seeing his fellow-prisoner liberated, De Brooke heartily congratulated him on his good fortune, and thanked him for his obliging proposal.
The Marquis then bowed, and left him with that ceremonious elegance of his country, which, while it too often supplies the place of solid worth, is itself rarely superseded even by conscious goodness of intention, much less gives place to vulgar familiarity. Thus while his friend the Marquis was conducted to the fond embraces of his wife and child, De Brooke remained a gloomy inhabitant of the Bench.
