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DUTY AND INCLINATION.
75

Mount Zephyr, then offered on lease, proposing, should it suit them, to make it their future residence.

Through the influence of Sir Aubrey, the General had obtained the certainty of being shortly put into possession of some Government allowance—an annual stipend for the support of his family becoming daily more necessary. His mind, therefore, being at rest on that score, he did not wish wholly to withdraw from life, but to remain sufficiently within its enjoyments to afford them occasionally to his daughters. He had the happiness of hearing that the salubrious springs of Bath had again revived Oriana, and hoped, as the spring-breezes further advanced, he should meet her shortly perfectly restored.

Fascinated as was Rosilia by the charm of those new affections awakened in her for her aunt, she could not think of their interruption but with pain. Almost daily Mrs. Arden called to take her for an airing in her carriage, and she had become, with her father, a frequent guest at her table. Thus in the habit of associating with her niece, Mrs. Arden sometimes spoke of her to Sir Aubrey and Lady De Brooke, in terms that could not fail to excite interest, and weaken insensibly that disinclination the former had felt ever to behold