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236 could he love another. She was doubtless lost to him for ever!

A year had already elapsed since he had parted from her; and how many more might in the same manner revolve? No term could be affixed to his residence abroad, destined as was his regiment for foreign service. Much as he had cherished his love for Rosilia—dreading nothing so much as that it should ever sink into apathy or indifference; yet to keep alive the hope of ever henceforward becoming a successful suitor, appeared to him as a delusive dream. He had not the remotest supposition of the sequestered life she led; and naturally concluding she would continue to move in those circles in which he had met her, he could not doubt but that another would rival him in her estimation, and obtain the hand he had vainly sought for.

Notwithstanding the justness of such reflections, to renounce voluntarily the possibility of ever being united to Rosilia caused Douglas many a trying moment, in weighing with himself the late conversation he had held with Mrs. Melbourne, and whether he could bring himself, on that account, to enter into an engagement with Miss Airey.

The regrets of his friends, he felt well persuaded, would follow his thus disposing of himself; besides