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256 obsequiousness and acquiescence to the will and pleasure of others, into what thoughtless indiscretion and want of due punctilio she might be led; rendering her, in the case of Philimore and Oriana, by favouring them in their secret union, a most dangerous intimate!

From the care and attention Mrs. De Brooke had bestowed upon the education of her daughters, and more particularly on their morals, as also from the great purity of her own, she never entertained the slightest thought of either of them deviating from the strictest care and circumspection. Rosilia, in her conduct to Douglas, had afforded her a convincing proof that her confidence had not been misplaced in her; and, under similar circumstances, she naturally concluded Oriana would have acted the same part. Happily, however, for Oriana, she was never destined to be placed under situations of great trial; for, with feeble powers of resistance, she would have been irrecoverably abandoned to the mortifying and endless stings of penitence and self-reproach.

Miss Morris resided next door to Philimore's family, in a house which, from having been the property of a widowed and deceased mother, devolved to her. Profiting by the friendship offered from their being such near neighbours, she had