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200
DUTY AND INCLINATION.

tirely his own,—an obvious dearth of mental attainment consequent on a defective education.

With Douglas, how differently would she have felt and acted, could she have been a witness of the misery into which he was plunged, caused by the powerful ascendancy she maintained over his heart; and, above all, could she have formed an idea of how much that heart had already become refined and elevated by the virtuous and ennobling sentiments with which she had inspired it; far from combating, as she had done, to subdue her partiality at the expense of peace and health, she would not have hesitated to have thrown herself upon his generous protection, in uniting herself to his destiny, and following his fortunes even to the remote clime to which he was then steering.

The hurry of embarkation, together with the agitated state of his mind, precluded Douglas from taking timely remedies to allay the fever which had attacked him, and which then raged with such violence, bordering on a state of frenzy, and pervading every fibre of his being; having attained this alarming height doubtless by the fresh excitement he was thrown into at the display of the fatal miniature, the resemblance of the beautiful Rosilia, in the possession of Herbert.

Subdued by the languor and lassitude of his