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Rh the presence of their father, while happily ignorant of the cause that of late had rendered that presence so rare, the elder children indulged in their usual gambols, whilst the younger on her mother's lap lavished her infantine caresses. A long-lost happiness was recovered to De Brooke; it came however embittered by the frequent recurrence that it would be but short; that presently, forlorn and forsaken, those beloved objects would be shut from his sight. His watch, that telltale of time, counted the hours as they fled. Mrs. De Brooke essayed to chase the mists of disquietude gathering around his brow. Every sudden motion of his frame bespoke the nervous agitation of his system.

She longed to break silence, to administer a balm to his feelings, but the moment was not yet at hand. She had a plan, but she wished to suspend its divulgement until the return of Robert, to whose sagacity and circumspection she looked for its accomplishment. In anxious expectation, the minutes, too rapid for De Brooke, crept on but slowly with her. She assumed, however, composure; and to divert her husband's attention during the interval, related some circumstances and anecdotes that had come within her observation during the period of his removal from her,