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230 have shaken his every nerve. Even De Brooke, struck by his appearance, sought to subdue his violence, urging the absolute necessity, if they hoped to recover what was lost, of proceeding with caution and moderation.

"Leabe de affair to me, massa, and let me die, if me do not bring back wat you habe lost! Did eber Robert vow, and not make his vow goot? But all shall be secret, fear not; no more for de present. Here comes missus," and he strode out of the chamber.

The heart of De Brooke sensibly lightened by the part his sympathizing and attached servant took in his misfortune: collecting in a mass the scattered papers which lay before him, he prepared with tolerable composure to meet his wife. The long abstracted fits, however, into which he afterwards fell, might certainly have drawn upon him the observation of Mrs. De Brooke, had not her attention been partially called away as the evening closed in by a visit from the Count. He had called with the view of repeating his excuses to Mrs. De Brooke for the intrusion of his dog, which in the morning he had made to the Colonel. The latter, however, in addition to his personal disapprobation of the Counts levity, was not in a humour to find his company any further agreeable,