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Rh accommodation. De Brooke, therefore, had no sooner adjusted himself in his moming's attire, than he found his table comfortably spread for his breakfast; and so provident had been his worthy black, that he had even obtained for his perusal the last Gazette. Alas, poor Robert! how much did he lament having done so, upon perceiving his master turn suddenly pale! A paragraph had met his eye, that gave to his heart an impulsive throb; the case might not allude to him, yet from similarity of circumstances he could not forbear in some manner applying it to himself. The passage ran as follows: "A protest is shortly about to be entered upon, having for its object to annul a marriage, in fashionable life on the score of its illegality, the parties being minor, at the time of its solemnization."

Could it be possible his father was meditating such a blow, a persecution so horrid and barbarous! "Impossible!" ejaculated he: suspended between conflicting opinions, he let the paper drop from his hands. Robert feared to speak, but marked in silent concern his master's perturbation. Moving slowly round, he took the paper up; when De Brooke, searching for it, seized it from his hand, in order to read again the fatal