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254 him, spoke but little, and from the excessive languor which oppressed him, unconscious that he slept, seemed equally so of the watchful solicitude bestowed upon him by his excellent wife and faithful servant. The little Aubrey was, if possible, reduced to a state of greater feebleness and decay, and given up continually to a sort of delirious drowsiness.

To add to the misery of such a situation, Mrs. De Brooke began to find that the resources from whence hitherto the innumerable demands incidental to a sick family had been supplied were beginning to fail her. In examining the écritoire of her husband, where she knew he was in the habit of depositing his cash, she had found there, for the support of another week, but a sum barely sufficient for the common necessaries of domestic existence. She was sensible that a few articles had been purchased by Robert from his own private means; a circumstance the more painful to her feelings, knowing that on the score of wages they were so much his debtor. To avoid the recurrence of such an additional, and, even to her meek mind, humiliating obligation, she had from time to time divested the room of every article of furniture not in immediate connection with her absolute wants, and also herself of her jewels and