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(&emsp;314&emsp;) a more solid nature, who shall vie with me? All I possess shall be cast at your feet. I defy him to out-do me, in fortune or in love."

Ellis now turned pale and cold: horrour thrilled through her veins, and almost made her heart cease to beat. Lord Melbury saw the change, and, hastily drawing towards her a chair, besought her to be seated. She was unable to refuse, for she had not strength to stand; but, when again he would have taken her hand, she turned from him, with an air so severe of soul-felt repugnance, that, starting with surprise and alarm, he forbore the attempt.

He stood before her utterly silent, and with a complexion frequently varying till she recovered; when, again raising her eyes, with an expression of mingled affliction and reproach, "And is it, then," she cried, "from a brother of the pure, the exemplary Lady Aurora Granville that I am destined to receive the most heart-rending insult of my life?"