The novels of Charles Brockden Brown, consisting of Wieland;or, The transformation. Arthur Mervyn; or, Memoirs of the year 1793. Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a sleep-walker. Jane Talbot. Ormond; or, The secret witness. Clara Howard; or, The enthusiasm of love. With a memoir of the author.

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84 ORMOND; OR,
the gentleman had come from Baltimore a month before,
and had since resided at that house. How soon he meant
to leave the city her informant was unable to tell.
Having gained this intelligence, she returned home,
and once more shut herself in her chamber to meditate
on this new posture of affairs.
CHAPTER X.
CRAIG was indebted to her father. He had defrauded
him by the most atrocious and illicit arts. On either
account he was liable to prosecution; but her heart rejected the thought of being the author of injury to any
man. The dread of punishment, however, might induce
him to refund, uncoercively, the whole or some part of
the stolen property. Money was at this moment necessary to existence, and she conceived herself justly entitled to that of which her' father had been perfidiously
despoiled.
But the law was formal and circuitous. Money itself
was necessary to purchase its assistance. Besides, it
could not act with unseen virtue and instantaneous celerity. The co-operation of advocates and officers was
required. They must be visited, and harangued, and
importuned. Was she adequate to the task? Would
the energy of her mind supply the place of experience,
and, with a sort of miraculous efficacy, afford her the
knowledge of official processes and dues? As little, on
this occasion, could be expected from her father as from
her. He was infirm and blind. The spirit that animated his former days was flown. His heart's blood was
chilled by the rigours of his fortune. He had discarded
his indignation and his enmities, and, together with them,
hope itself had perished in his bosom. He waited, in
tranquil despair, for that stroke which would deliver him
from life and all the woes that it inherits.
But these considerations were superfluous. It was
enough that justice must be bought, and that she had