dently concealed from her the causes (real or ideal) which had led to the alarming scene that presented itself on her return from Mrs. Herbert's. The whole truth, as it appeared to the mind of De Brooke, shall be briefly related.
Two men, apparently creditors of his, rudely breaking in upon the stillness of the sick chamber, on being interrogated as to their business, answered that they were come from Sir Aubrey respecting the amount of their claims, the justice of which being allowed, they trusted would no longer be withheld from them; at the same time they produced a paper, exhibiting to the astonished De Brooke the signature of his father, as if authorizing their proceeding, and aiding in the prosecution. Stunned by this cruel demonstration, the unhappy De Brooke, already weakened and disturbed, as well by the inroads of disease as irritation of mind, now the victim of a father's vengeance, reeling from the sofa on which he lay, had sunk into that deep and dreadful swoon, in which upon her return his wife had found him; unable therefore to obtain further information, those hard-hearted men had departed that prison of sorrow, leaving, as the result of their visit, De Brooke apparently lifeless!
But though to Mrs. De Brooke the cold-blooded behaviour of these wretches had never been
