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300 moreover, who has not to encounter the pain of leaving a beloved domestic circle, should, in spite of all this, look forward with visible apprehension and melancholy to her marriage day!”

Florentine gave a hand to each of her friends. “You are, indeed, too good, and too anxious about me,” said she; “I ought to be ashamed of having so long kept up that mysterious reserve of which you complain. At this moment, indeed, I am not well enough to enter on any explanations;—but, some time to-day I shall speak with you more composedly, and all will be cleared up. For the present, I beseech you, let us choose some other subject.” The violent nervous excitement which Florentine betrayed made her friends readily comply with this suggestion,—and, as usual on such occasions, they had again recourse to the weather. Amelia began to describe, as humorously as she could, all the effects and varieties of last night’s tempest, till Maria interposed in rather a serious tone—“In truth, I must confess, that for my own part, I thought frequently there was somewhat far more than usual or natural in the disturbances of that storm. Many times it seemed to me as if the window of