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20. Oriana had felt she was as well entertained as she could possibly expect to be in any company except Philimore's, and regretted the hour when the party dispersed.

"Well," said Mrs. De Brooke after the guests had retired, "and which of our girls, think you, has made the conquest of the amiable Valpée?"

"Indeed," replied the General, "they had both their beaux, and I was happy to find it was so, as I should be sorry to see my dear girls rivals of each other."

Notwithstanding the late insinuations of Oriana respecting the character of Sir Howard, Rosilia had never felt so much disposed to be pleased with him as since the evening of their excursion to the cottage. In administering to the infirmities and necessities of his late father's servants, he appeared to her in a light at once generous, humane, and filial. It was indeed an act such as any possessing goodness of heart might have been happy to perform. But as Rosilia, from her first acquaintance with Sir Howard, feared that the judgment she had passed upon him was too severe, it was now with pleasure she recalled to mind his benevolent conduct, which induced her to think that the failings she had perceived might have originated in her own want of due discrimination.

Rosilia, however, with all her nice discernment, had yet to learn how difficult it is for dim-sighted mortals to form a correct estimate of those interior motives that sway the heart and lead to human action.