Page:Duty and Inclination 2.pdf/277

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DUTY AND INCLINATION.
275

Sinclair. Never having seen Mrs. De Brooke, he could only suppose, by the prevailing likeness, that she might be the mother of Rosilia. Had he not been in company with Harcourt, in claiming the privilege of former acquaintance with Rosilia, he would have accosted her, and gained an introduction to her mother; but knowing it would be the means of gratifying Harcourt, he thought it better to defer so doing to a more favourable opportunity.

Recollecting how formidable a rival he had met with in Captain Douglas, he feared to run the risk of encountering the same in Harcourt. The secret malice he had borne against the former, led him to hope that his views respecting Rosilia were frustrated; and which he suspected was truly the case, as no news of his marriage had transpired since he embarked for India.

Though still covetous of wealth, and his ideas of marriage unchanged, yet his rencounter with Rosilia in the Gardens, set free, as he imagined, from the pursuit of Douglas, conferred upon him no small degree of pleasure.

Finding in his walk with Harcourt that all attempt to extract a word from him was fruitless, he left him.