Page:Duty and Inclination 2.pdf/86

84 rose. As Mrs. Arden advanced to introduce her niece, Sir Aubrey came forward to meet her, regretting that he had not seen her first in private, fearing, like her sister, she might be touched with similar emotions; the apprehension, however, instantly vanished, when Oriana, free from the least embarrassment, received his offered hand, no thought intruding to cloud for a moment the animated character of her countenance and manners.

Drawing inwardly a comparison between the sisters, though he had been but little moved by Rosilia's sensibility, yet it had infused into his mind a conscious pleasure, of which he had not lost the remembrance; and when he was asked by Mrs. Arden which of her brother's daughters he preferred, he unhesitatingly answered Rosilia, the younger.

If the manners of Oriana were eminently attractive, if found to be the most accomplished, Rosilia bore from her the palm of beauty. If, of a quick and clear intellect, Oriana, as if from intuitive knowledge, seized upon and comprehended a subject,—Rosilia, given to reflection, thought and contemplation, possessed a judgment less liable to err, more interiorly cultivated and refined. If less dazzling in conversation than her sister, she interested more. If Oriana charmed by her vivacity