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Rh son seemed plunged, from the moment he began to intimate, and while continuing to urge, his proposition.

"You seem, sir", said he, with a look of sternness, "rather dissatisfied than otherwise at the pains I take to promote your welfare. I am unwise, I find, in so doing: deemed officious, I neither receive gratitude nor thanks. The sooner I cease to intermeddle, the better."

"Spare me, spare me," replied the son. "Not so, believe me, my dear sir. I am sensible of the kind interest you take in my concerns—,but"—The brow of Sir Aubrey became more contracted, while, with restless irritability, he attended to the disclosure which was to follow "but—at present—I have no wish—" De Brooke still hesitated; he knew not how to proceed: the dread of discovery, and the consciousness of the duplicity he was practising, caused him to labour under a confusion the most embarrassing. "Sir", continued he, "will you pardon me for the present? That I have not seemed duly thankful and pleased at your proposal is owing to the suddenness—I was entirely unprepared."

"For which reason," returned Sir Aubrey, with impetuosity, "you have not had leisure to frame falsehoods to deceive me. I cannot suppose you