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28 leave: "We shall meet on Thursday", said he to Rosilia, in tones that spoke more than the words.

"Oh, yes!" was her joyous and immediate answer; when, mistaking the meaning of her innocent pleasure, not supposing it sprung merely from the anticipated novelties of the fête, but enraptured by a manner so flattering and encouraging, he seized her hand, and pressed it with ardour. An impulse so sudden abashed the timid girl, whose countenance, overspread with confusion, recalled Douglas to a sense of his precipitancy: the soft pleadings of his look and utterance spoke volumes; and turning from her, he bowed gracefully to her mother and sister, and withdrew.

The impressions he left upon the youthful Rosilia being variable, were also fugitive; serenity, hitherto the predominating companion of her bosom, soon usurped its wonted sway; her slumbers were as light, as happy as her sisters; she arose with the dawn, careless of the future, enjoying the present, yielding to the charms of all around; she breathed with Oriana the freshness of the morning, and rambled with her over the shrubbery and while the healthful exercise invigorated her frame, it gave an additional lustre to her glowing beauty.