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Rh a greater punctuality in my correspondence and visits than I have fulfilled, but in stating to her the causes of my seeming negligence of her she has forgiven me. Indeed, I was meditating a trip to see her, and which my rencontre with Mrs. Melbourne hastened. Had I done so sooner, we should not have been at a loss," added he, turning to Rosilia, "to have discovered the origin of your little favourite Rose. I never in my life passed a more agreeable time. I had much pleasing conversation with the ladies; but the subject upon which they most delighted to dwell was the virtues of Colonel Douglas, whom Mrs. Melbourne affectionately styles her son, from his having espoused, it seems, her protégée, and whom she had been pleased to call her adopted daughter. Colonel Douglas has but recently returned with her from India, where by great personal merit and ability in his profession he has obtained very rapid promotion. He is a noble fellow truly; his dignified stature, the commanding graces of his person, are surpassed alone, in my estimation, by the superior lustre of his mind. To the most extensive knowledge of men and things, acquired by study, travel, and observation, he unites a peculiar urbanity of manner, which insensibly wins upon the esteem. I remember to have seen Ellina Airey when she was but a child; she appeared by no means promising, sufficiently so at least as to render her in after years calculated for the wife of Douglas. I might have been mistaken; under the tuition of a loving and