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188 his obligations, ere the door closed, and he was gone.

The presence of Mr. Philimore had diffused over the benighted soul of De Brooke one of those gleams of sunshine that in an instant appear, but as instantly vanish, leaving gloom more profound and grief more oppressive; for however he had sought to conceal the depth of his embarrassments by a gilded and false colouring, yet he was himself far from sharing in the delusion. The uncertainty involving his affairs was such, that he felt unwarranted in giving way to any expectation of speedy succour. The money to be amassed from the sale of his property, though costly and valuable, would not, he well knew, suffice for the payment of creditors so numerous and importunate as his; on the other hand, his quarterly allowance, as colonel in the army, was amply sufficient to defray the necessary expenses of his wife's separate establishment, as also his own private exigencies; but, till his debts were paid, even to their smallest fraction, no possibility existed whereby he might escape from the ignominious bondage in which he was then enthralled, and be restored to the embraces of his partner, and the caresses of his lovely children. Estranged as was his father from him, could he look to him for