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222 Brooke could never turn aside from the voice of sorrow with an unpitying heart. Thus, too often forgetful of his own and his family's interests, he acceded to the requests made to him for the loan of money, and yielded with unsuspecting confidence to the promises made of return. The Baronet was one of those who, from his greater speciousness of humility and candour, had drawn upon him the most largely. Still, however, the society of those well-informed men, who made their visits mostly of an evening, was some compensation, and gave an agreeable close to the day.

Mrs. De Brooke had frequent intervals permitted her for indulging in the delight of social intercourse with her early and attached friend Mrs. Philimore; but, if precluded from a more general acquaintance with her own sex, the intellectual charm derived from the other caused her to be the less sensible of the privation.

Time passed with so little even of casual interruption, that, apparently forgotten by his father, his sister, and the world, fallen into complete oblivion, and living for his family alone, De Brooke seemed as if he had tasted of the precious Nepenthe, so seldom did reflection, as formerly, lead him to the contemplation of his miseries. When