Page:Duty and Inclination. Volume 3.pdf/126

124 "I am engaged to go to a distant part of the town this morning, and I fear have already exceeded the time appointed, or I should have offered to conduct Miss De Brooke on her intended visit." He then made his bow, and left the room.

Meanwhile, Rosilia in her apartment, previous to making arrangements for her walk, ran her eye over the contents of Melliphant's letter. In the most glowing and impassioned language, it described the long and secret passion with which his heart had been overwhelmed, and was then torn, under the presage of an event the most grievous, that of never more seeing her! Her constant indifference, and a sense of his own unworthiness, had caused him to wrap up his feelings in the deepest folds of his heart; though to stifle and subdue them was impossible. Often when he might have appeared indifferent to all things around him, his soul had been most keenly alive and susceptible to the deepest impressions. He begged of her to forgive him this confession of his love.

"Your scorn," wrote he, "yes, your scorn, I could better bear, than that you should for one moment imagine I could be insensible to your attractions! Alas! you are unacquainted with the heart which adores you, in which your image is engraven, and which, after it ceases to beat, will descend with it to the grave."

He then entered upon a brief vindication of his conduct, relative to the motives which induced him