A few days after they arrived at Hyde Park Corner; and driving through the dense and dusky fogs of London, beyond Portman Square, where the atmosphere became clearer, they stopped at the door of a neat and comfortable house, the residence of Mrs. Herbert, who had previously by letter undertaken to afford them accommodation and private board. Charmed by the prospect their society offered, she had not hesitated to relinquish the whole of her apartments, with the exception of a back parlour and sleeping-room for herself.
Her slender finances laying her under the necessity of taking in lodgers, she rejoiced that upon this occasion her good fortune had fallen upon General De Brooke and his amiable family. With all the affectionate garrulity of age, she a thousand times expressed her pleasure at beholding the sisters; but more to Rosilia, lavishing upon her the fondest greetings, by the appellation of her child, her dear, dear child!
It may be well supposed that Philimore and Oriana, inhabiting the same place and not greatly removed from each other, found frequent occasions for meeting; seldom, indeed, but in the presence of others, when caution and restraint were necessarily observed; but those feelings, mutually so painful and oppressive, were compensated by the
