Page:Duty and Inclination 1.pdf/250

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
242
DUTY AND INCLINATION.

was unnecessary; the aching head, feverish hand, and quick pulse afforded but too evident proofs that her husband also had caught the infection.

De Brooke had found himself labouring under a depression of body more than might proceed from mental agitation; nevertheless he had borne it in silence, fearful of accumulating sorrow upon his amiable partner; but now that the attack seemed decided to declare itself, it was no longer in his power to conceal it. What an awful situation for this unfortunate family! a jail fever had begun to spread its malignancy within their little abode, exhibiting to their view a disconsolate woe, where but late, notwithstanding their confinement, a comparative happiness had reigned.

The mother and her eldest daughter Oriana were yet free from contagion; Rosilia was slowly gathering strength, and a relapse was to be dreaded as fatal. Though bewildered for a moment, the judgment of De Brooke returning, he clearly discerned that there was but one plan left to adopt, from which there could be no appeal, urgent and imperious necessity demanding it.

"Go, my dear, my best love"' said he, addressing himself to his wife, "for God's sake! go, whilst, you are enabled to do so; take with you your dear girls; one is partly recovered, the other is at pre-