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136 though his conscience acquitted him of any very serious or flagrant evil; yet he could not conceal from himself, that however harsh the conduct of his father had ever been to him, he had been culpable in that want of due regard and respect incumbent upon a son. It would thence, he well knew, be justly said to his discredit, that he had neglected parental authority to a degree scarcely to be sanctioned, had he progressed to years beyond those he then numbered. But, however seriously he reflected upon the subject, the illegality of the step he had taken never entered into his most remote conception.

After, therefore, his leave of absence had expired, and he was necessitated to return to the capital, he judged it necessary to break to Angelina, with as much delicacy as possible, the circumstance of his having deceived her father into the belief that he had obtained the consent of Sir Aubrey to his marriage with her. His affection for her, he assured her, was founded on the purest conjugal love; and, justified by the goodness of his intentions, the urgency and peculiarity of his case, he had conceived such a deception necessary, in order to evade consequences the most fatal to his hopes.

As it may be easily imagined such a disclosure was greatly calculated to afflict Angelina, De Brooke