Page:Duty and Inclination 1.pdf/17

Rh gazed upon her, who, from the first moment he had beheld, her, had awakened feelings which to stifle was impossible. Oriana being still engaged in conversation with her father, Douglas occasionally, in accents scarcely audible, addressed Rosilia; the sorrows of her beloved parent, still fresh upon her thoughts, gave pensiveness to her countenance and sanctity to her manners. With her light and summer garb, sometimes encompassing her delicate form and sometimes floating in the night’s soft breeze, together with the airy grace investing her, she seemed like a being just descended upon the earth, prepared to soar again in aerial flights.

To awe the soul of Douglas, to check his bold presumption, his too great volatility, was difficult; but this Rosilia then for the first time undesignedly effected. The insinuations his remarks were intended to convey seemed not by her replies to be understood, and his complimentary speeches passed from her ear as unmeaning nothings.

From ever having been much favoured by the sex, Douglas had acquired a habit of approaching them with adulation, which, though disregarded by a few, he had found to be successful with the many, and he was consequently unprepared to encounter the timid modesty of Rosilia. Warm and impetuous, captivated by her attractions, his