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CHAPTER VII.
HAVING seen our friend properly installed in his new office, we turned our
eyes towards Windsor. The nearness of this place to London was such, as to
take away the idea of painful separation, when we quitted Raymond and
Perdita. We took leave of them in the Protectoral Palace. It was pretty
enough to see my sister enter as it were into the spirit of the drama, and
endeavour to fill her station with becoming dignity. Her internal pride and
humility of manner were now more than ever at war. Her timidity was not
artificial, but arose from that fear of not being properly appreciated,
that slight estimation of the neglect of the world, which also
characterized Raymond. But then Perdita thought more constantly of others
than he; and part of her bashfulness arose from a wish to take from those
around her a sense of inferiority; a feeling which never crossed her mind.
From the circumstances of her birth and education, Idris would have been
better fitted for the formulae of ceremony; but the very ease which
accompanied such actions with her, arising from habit, rendered them
tedious; while, with every drawback, Perdita evidently enjoyed her
situation. She was too full of new ideas to feel much pain when we
departed; she took an affectionate leave of us, and promised to visit us
soon; but she did not regret the circumstances that caused our separation.
The spirits of Raymond were unbounded; he did not know what to do with his
new got power; his head was full of plans; he had as yet decided on none--
but he promised himself, his friends, and the world, that the aera of his
Protectorship should be signalized by some act of surpassing glory. Thus, we
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