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Rh it impossible not to acknowledge the perfections with which nature had gifted him. Contrary, however, to her sanguine expectations, it proved otherwise. The memory of past familiarity threw upon the manners of Rosilia an unusual reserve, probably arising from a certain refinement of ideas above his slender endowments, or from an incapacity of appreciating them, which was in itself sufficient to prohibit an association, which the fond and deluded mother secretly hoped might, at no very distant period, lead to a more intimate and dearer tie.

Through the interest of a friend, the young Herbert had just obtained a commission, and was in the expectation of embarking for India, where, in the indulgence of juvenile hopes, he conceived wealth and prosperity of easy attainment. But whether such in the future were realized, and how far his imagination coincided in his mother's dreams of happiness for him, the course of our narrative will determine.