pressure of such heavy calamities, he would have been better pleased had she not done so.
Amongst the many afflictive billows pouring on De Brooke in his "sea of troubles," was one arising from the total neglect he experienced from his sister, Mrs. Arden. Whatever cause for displeasure he had given to his father, he never supposed it could have been resented by his sister, she to whom he had been endeared in childhood, had harmonized with and united, as young branches germinating from one stock;—in the proud ostentatious union she had formed, if in disposing of herself to a wealthy suitor it might be so considered; that those tender ties, those kinder feelings, should be torn asunder, was an enigma not to be solved. How perplexing and harassing to think of by one like De Brooke, whose heart was so utterly opposed to such a conduct!
Giving herself wholly to the splendid felicities, reigning in the world of fashion, was it possible she could enter those scenes of gaiety and dissipation, arrayed with pomp, glittering with the gems bestowed by her opulent husband, without casting one thought upon a brother, one tender recollection of him, the playmate of her infancy, then groaning under the iron rod of misery and oppression!—time, in its course rolling on, with-
