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212 with energy on the kind friendship she had met with from Mrs. Philimore. Whilst thus engaged, the auspicious moment at length arrived: Robert, breathless, as if big with some unlooked-for agreeable intelligence, flung open the door, his sable features beaming with honest exultation: he pointed to an apartment opposite, divided but by a narrow corridor.

"What is it you mean, my good fellow?" said De Brooke rising and moving towards the door, followed by his wife: "explain yourself," continued he, entering the room, Where Robert stood to receive him: "this is a snug apartment."

"Me mean, massa, dat it be yours; in obeying de wishes of missus, me hab been lucky, very lucky, to get it: to be sure, not witout paying large price to get de late owner out of it. But he be better off, he be put below stairs; and dis will answer your purpose well, very well; we can all lib here very comfortable togeder."

Interrupting the volubility of Robert, De Brooke turned to his wife, who replied, by entreating him to give her a patient hearing with regard to the proposal she was about making him. With this, seating themselves to indulge in a tête-à-tête conversation, Robert, gay as a lark soaring to chant its