splendid mansion she was about to inhabit, of which the luxury and affluence, she was well assured, would add nothing to her happiness. And so she expressed herself to her fond parents when about to depart.
"My dear child," said her father, "It is for your benefit only, that your mother and myself consent to make the sacrifice of your company; to bestow your accomplishments and valuable attainments upon my sister and Mr. Arden, who are for the future to reap the advantage of them—the fruit of that instruction,—that excellent education,—I have given you. What will not parents forego under the hope of a prosperous result to their children? But Rosilia is still ours!" continued he, endeavouring to cheer her, dispirited by the near separation from her sister.
The conscience of Oriana whispered in rebuke, that Rosilia alone was truly worthy of the tenderness and approbation of her parents. Alas! she was about leaving her home to reside in future with her aunt; and under what false colours! how greatly were they deceived in her! That morning her marriage-bans had been, for the third time, published in a remote parish church, in the certainty that the secret could not possibly transpire in the quarter of the town they inhabited, or
