A glance
removed every care. Reading it aloud to both her young auditors, at
every welcome word the bosom of the amazed Miss Beaufort heaved with
increasing astonishment, hope, and gratitude, while beneath the veil
of her clustered ringlets her eyes shed the tribute of happy tears to
heaven--to that heaven alone her virgin spirit breathed the emotions
of her reviving heart. The good old lady was not backward in
demonstrating her wonderings. Surprised at her brother's rencontre
with Thaddeus, but more at his avowal of obligations to any of that
nation about which he had always proclaimed an aversion, she was so
wrapped in bewilderment yet delight at the discovery, that her ever
cheerful tongue felt nothing loathe to impart to the attentively-
listening Albina--who had recognized in the names of Constantine and
Thaddeus those of her lamented mother's most faithful friend--all
that she knew of his public as well as his private character since
she had known him by that of Sobieski also.
Sir Robert's letter informed his sister "that a providential
circumstance had introduced Pembroke's friend, the Count Sobieski, to
his presence, when, to his astonishment and unutterable satisfaction,
he discovered that this celebrated young hero (though one of a nation
against which he had so often declared his dislike, but which
ungenerous prejudice he now abjured!) was the only remaining branch
of a family from whom, about twenty-live years ago, while in a
country far distant equally from England or Poland, he had received
many kindnesses, he had contracted an immense debt, under peculiarly
embarrassing circumstances to himself, when then an alien from his
father's confidence.
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