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The General and Mrs. De Brooke, from motives af prudence, thought proper not to delay the departure of Oriana for the Park; which, had they consulted their private wishes, they would certainly have done, until the time allotted for their quitting London. Their tastes not leading to public amusements, they lived with Mrs. Herbert in comparative seclusion.

The ball, the opera, and theatre were every night resorted to by the admired belle of fashion; while Rosilia, supremely lovely in mind as in person,—she who in every circle, even the most distinguished, might have elicited attention as the grand-daughter of the late renowned Sir Aubrey De Brooke, continued unheard of and unknown; not that it was any subject of mortification to her that she never joined those brilliant circles of pomp and pleasure, where, she well knew, it was the adventitious circumstances of wealth or elevated rank which alone claimed superiority. It was