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86 ,—the lights, the idle, and the dissipated of the other sex might be led to flutter about them; admitting that their morals remained unimpaired, the chance of forming an honourable and advantageous alliance might be wholly frustrated, as had already been the case, and might be so again." In a word, he resolved to uphold and patronize them, meritorious as they were, and by thus acting, in the close of life, to shed a lustre upon his private, as he had already done upon his public character. When, from the strength of his reasonings, Sir Aubrey once traced for himself the line of conduct to be pursued, he was never observed to deviate from it: strictly inflexible, it was to this high moral principle he might have owed his rapid and extra-ordinary rise.

On the evening of the second day, he announced his intention of returning to London. He felt himself oppressed; an unusual languor had stolen over him; and though all at Fairfield Lodge were attentive to his least wish, home he conceived most suited to his truly indisposed state.

De Brooke the next morning sincerely felt, and expressed, regret at seeing his father depart so suddenly; but more from the cause, it being evident that since the preceding evening his illness, from his altered looks, had increased. Nevertheless