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302 short of actual necessity, he had dared in some measure to palliate the guilt of his own transgression.

"If I have appeared," he continued, "guilty in her eyes, trust me, I seem very far from innocent in my own estimation, though impelled at the time by the strongest affection for that amiable being, my only surviving relative, and the afflicted wife of one, whose hard fate seemed only recompensed in his having such a wife. As her brother, and the most devoted of her friends, she had in the first instance applied to me in her distress; not having sufficient by me to answer the whole extent of her husband's debt, I put my signature to the remainder, and the bill being protested, I was in consequence arrested; to which previous accident I owe my first introduction to Colonel De Brooke.

"We became companions in prison and in misfortune. Sympathy for each other under such circumstances led to a frequent interchange of visits. Disgraceful to myself as might appear the termination of this intimacy, believe me, the sentiments I professed for you and yours were perfectly disinterested, and would ever have remained so, had not unforeseen circumstances of the most