Page:Duty and Inclination 1.pdf/145

Rh gave her every assurance that the concealment of his union would be but temporary. Having so far arranged this concern, the next was to sequester his Angelina in as much privacy as possible. Alas! had he attended to the suggestions of his heart, and self-approvals, in having selected her from the world under motives so disinterested and generous, he would have pursued a very different plan; he would have given immediate publicity to his marriage, exulting in the choice he had made. The pride of the husband could not have been more gratified, than by displaying at once, to an admiring world, his young, interesting, and blooming bride, in all the native lustre of personal and mental charms. Why, with a heart accustomed hitherto to follow the guidance of its own generous dictates, why did a mistaken judgment interfere to lead him from an act of honour and uprightness—to form so unfortunate, so fatal a decision? The dread of incurring the frown of Sir Aubrey—of encountering that formidable sternness, those severe rebukes, which, in his days of youth, made their strong impression, and, even in maturer years, struck the same terror over his imagination; but which, in the present important crisis of his fate, connected with the future peace of Angelina,