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72
DUTY AND INCLINATION.

daughter; whilst Rosilia, on her side, was charmed by the kind suavity and condescension of her aunt.

Happy season of youth! when all that is novel strikes upon the imagination, and is exalted with a fervour admitting of no alloy.

The General having brought his daughter early, in order that she might have leisure for making acquaintance with her aunt, left them, with the intention of rejoining them at the dinner hour. After the indulgence therefore of a tête-à-tête, Rosilia accompanied her aunt in her usual every-day drive. Descending to the carriage, followed by her aunt, the livery attendants having taken their stations behind, Mrs. Arden, having made some purchases for herself at several fashionable shops, and a few presents for her niece, visited a circulating library in Bond-street, where having lounged away an hour or two in chit-chat amongst her acquaintance, and taken a few turns in Hyde Park, she was driven home; during which interval she insensibly fell into a comparison between the nieces of Mr. Arden and Rosilia. Weary of the continual society of the former, and the common-place topics they discussed, she resolved to make the latter, as long as her stay in London permitted, her frequent companion. She felt proud and flat-