from what Captain Douglas gave us to understand, he may enter into treaty for the Villa, and which I trust may be the case, as the immediate letting of it, with the sale of all our property, can alone save us from ruin. Were we to effect this, our intention is to retire into Wales, for the little revenue afforded to your father by Government is adequate only to an establishment supported by the greatest oeconomy. As to your dear father and myself, we do not grieve on our own accounts; but for you, my dear girls, to be so early in life immured in solitude, it rends our hearts to think of it."
Mrs. De Brooke could not proceed; tears dropped from her maternal eyes. Her daughters sought to comfort her, and in this state of distressed feeling they arrived at home; at that home which was so soon to become the property of another.
They entered at the private gate leading through the shrubbery; and the hapless mother and daughters stepped between banks of flowery luxuriance without uttering one word: they were affectionately greeted by the General.
Mrs. De Brooke hud left him far from well, and though by a forced cheerfulness he had tried to persuade her it was otherwise, his sunk eyes and debilitated frame too plainly spoke what he had wished to conceal. His tender partner found him
