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168 then enslaved him; on the other hand, there was nothing he had so much dreaded, as the long-continued ascendency of Angelina over his affections, arising from the fatal anticipation that marriage might be the result; and at once not only finally extinguish his hopes for the future, but also, of what he could never think of but With the utmost degree of rage, tarnish his high name, transmitting it to a race degenerate and unworthy!

Under the influence of these predominating feelings he had sent for his son, if, possibly, ere it became too late, by holding out a recompense, proportionate to the sacrifice he was about to require of him, he might induce him to relinquish for ever her, for whom he felt such an inveterate aversion, as interposing herself between his lofty ambition and those towering views of grandeur which had so long become the sole and ruling desire of his heart. The newly-acquired rank he had to announce to his son, he vainly supposed might have brought with it that elation of mind, which might prove the necessity of uniting fortune to rank; and in consequence conduct him to the choice of a partner, who might bestow upon him this (in Sir Aubrey's opinion) most important and essential acquisition. But when, from his son's own confession, he was given to behold, in all its