necessity of deriving their chief support from his ministerial labours; "And how," thought he, in pursuing the train of his reflections, "how withdraw from my father the benefits he receives from me! Should I cease to befriend him, how unnatural would it be for a son on whose education he has so liberally expended his means, and in whom all his hopes centre!"
The General, he conceived, might be more easily led to countenance his attachment to his daughter than his father, who, independently of his fallen fortunes, had a temper naturally covetous of wealth, and who, even in his prosperous days, could never admit the idea of his eldest son uniting himself to any but a woman of fortune; sooner, had he heard him say, would he follow him to the grave! Alas! it was this cruel exception even to the family of De Brooke that had so deeply affected his mind with gloom during the period of Rosilia's sojourn in London.
Esteemed as might be the General by his father, and however he had acknowledged that Oriana was perfectly desirable in herself, there was nothing, Philimore felt persuaded, his father would be more obstinately bent upon opposing than a union with her.
Alas! the perversity of human things! Oriana
