Mrs. Hunter

“ I have had lately to struggle, not only with my secret sorrows, but with the acute sense of being suspected as a deceitful woman by that being to whom I stand indebted for the only comfort of my life: by my husband’s friend and consoler! Yet, Miss Cowley, my soul is yearning to convince you that it is honest and sincere. I must explain to you the causes which have imposed upon me a conduct of duplicity and deceit. I want a friend, Miss Cowley: yes, I want a friend, in whose faithful bosom I may with safety place a secret that oppresses my own, and which must destroy me. ”

“ I burst into tears, and convulsed by my feelings, could only say, 'My brother! and my friend!' He pressed me to his bosom with energy. 'We are united!' cried I; 'no distance or time shall separate us! on earth or in heaven we will be brothers!' Mr. Flamall remarked, that I had ill chosen my time for pathetics, and gravely reminded Philip to behave like a man; but his lessons were useless; for our attention was now called to Miss Flint, who was in hysterics, and my weeping but collected mother urged her son to depart. ”

“ I thought he looked ashamed, and his hand trembled so, that brought to my mind more forcibly my blessed Master’s commands, ‘If thy brother sinneth against thee, seven, and seventy-times-seven, thou shalt forgive him.’ And, after all, Sir Murdoch, where is the comfort of an unrelenting temper? This man may turn out a good husband, and repay my forgiveness of him an hundred-fold by his kindness to my poor heedless girl. He may, if he will, make a worthy man, and a good father, and be a comfort to me: at any rate, I have done my duty, and pleased my blessed Caroline. ”

“ But you will say, that even Horace Hardcastle must fall short of that elevation to which my fond imagination has raised him. You are deceived; I neither expect, nor even wish for absolute perfection in a husband. My eyes are human, too strong a light would but dazzle and confound them. But I love Horace even in his foibles; twelve years acquaintance with them have made them my own, as well as his virtues. But to be serious, tell me to whose influence was your dear mother indebted for a docility on my part which she did not even expect from the untamed rebel to all constraint. ”

“ Pity me, my dear Lucy! Tell me that your good uncle has produced some change in your father's inflexible resolutions. Mr. Freeman is a wise man, although he loves my poor Horace so tenderly. Surely he might convince Mr. Hardcastle without invading on the prerogatives of the immortal Newton, that no material injury would be done to the planetary system by our writing to each other! He might go farther, and safely predict, that our marriage would not hasten a single comet. No extraordinary thunders would announce to the world, that happiness had triumphed over cent. ”

“ My cheek no longer flushes on seeing Miss Flint; nothing rises in my throat when I ask her how she passed the night. Are not these gracious signs, Lucy, that I am becoming truly your sister? You shake your dear head. Well, "Rome was not built in a day," says the proverb; and after all, can I help that people should reap that which they have sowed? Would you wish me to give to Miss Flint the tribute due to suffering virtue? and to think, with Mrs. Allen, that the wicked are more to be commiserated than the good? ”

“ I am a man who love proper subordination, though I hate slavery. An army is badly disciplined, in my mind, when the commanding officers are ‘hail fellow well met’ with the privates; and when I see a lord or a duke quit his rank, I understand how matters are going on. I have not lived in the world for nothing.” “Well but, papa,” said the lively Miss Nora, seizing in a moment her father’s allusion, “I suppose there is no sin in a private soldier’s rising in his regiment if he can do so honourably.” “Certainly not, child,” answered Mr. Serge. ”

“ The pleasure of saving a trifle for some favourite poor child, or an indigent widow, excited their personal frugality: the attention it called out to little things, and the habits of order it promoted, were of the most important use to a young woman, who, living with good and tender parents, without wants, and void of cares, was in danger of becoming ignorant of the value of money, and heedless. I know I should manage my own affairs admirably," added she, fondly kissing him, "for you see that I have not forgotten my dear mother's lessons, nor her example." ”

“ Be not surprised, my dear Miss Cowley, that I thus plead in favour of unadorned goodness, and plain sense,” continued she. “My father has shown me, that virtue needs not the polish of the world, nor the acquirements of the schools, to make its way to the esteem and reverence of those within the reach of its attractive powers. You have witnessed my father’s goodness to his children; and believe me, when I tell you, that his whole life and conversation has been exactly similar to the ‘Israelites, in whom there was no guile.’ God will comfort and support him when I am removed! ”

“ Malcolm persuaded him to ride, and they returned not till the placid features of Mr. Serge could bear our kindness. To-day I have seen Caroline; having heard from Mrs. Allen that she was easy and composed.
I was prepared to find her in bed, but not to see her father stretched by her side on the outside of it, thinking he was with his wife. Oh! how fervently do I wish that every girl whom folly and heedlessness may tempt into the same road to ruin which Miss Leonora has taken, could have witnessed, as I did, the pangs which rend a parent’s bosom for the desertion of a child! ”

“ You will therefore be graciously disposed to indemnify us for the unequal partition of Horace’s gift; and send us the shreds, trimmings, and even the pack-thread which you will glean from the respectable society of Mr. Serge’s family. I love my girl in her sportive humour; and never think of her without losing a portion of my own!”
With my heart on my lips, and the Portugal onion in my bosom, can you blame me if I should transgress your law of charity, Lucy? I will be as good as I can; but thus tempted to folly, if I sin thank my betrayer, and do not chide me. ”

“ I had found tranquillity: I had gained a heart on which to repose: my wife was my asylum from care; but I had no relish for joy: society was distasteful to me, and the common amusements of life were irksome and fatiguing. My Harriet, the kind and guardian angel that heaven had bestowed on me, convinced me that we were formed for each other. My tastes were hers, my comforts hers, and retirement was necessary to her happiness. I saw with contentment Miss Flint’s increasing attachment to the little Philip: she was continually engaged in the nursery with him ”

“ You have seen the result! You have witnessed her aunt's obduracy! I accept, with gratitude, your offered protection. Heaven has given you the means, and a mind worthy of the donor! The time may not be far remote when this destitute young woman will present herself before you, weak in her youth, in her beauty, and in her purity. Shelter her, Madam; the work will be honourable, and the recompence beyond what my most fervent prayers of gratitude can reach.
I remain respectfully,
Your obliged humble servant,
Percival Flint. ”

“ You really are as dull as though brother and sister. I cannot conceive how you contrive to keep up your cheerfulness at Tarefield: what with your prudent lover, and the sober routine at the Hall, I think you as much to be pitied as I am.” “Much the same,” answered I, laughing; “for my calamities are as imaginary as your own. I love the country, and the retirement at the Hall; and I am attached to its inmates. I am so completely Malcolm Maclairn’s sister that I am his chief confident, and he reads his love letters to me. ”

“ But to what tribunal shall I appeal, when called upon to answer to the charge of deceit, of imposition, of falsehood! Of having imposed on thy generous confidence, and of having worn a name and a title to which I had no right, and which I have contaminated? Is there not a refuge for the penitent? Has not the Almighty promised to forgive his contrite erring children; and will Maclairn’s noble mind, refuse pity and compassion to an offender whom he loves? ”

“ I well know what my dear father’s sorrow will be, when I am removed. He will need comfort, and Leonora has only to use her understanding, and to employ her cares assiduously to be the consoler he will want in the first access of his sorrow: his God and his own piety will then be his consolation, I trust.” “And I most fervently hope,” replied I, “that your youth and your patience will effect your restoration to health. You will live, I trust, to be a comfort and a blessing to your good father, and all your family. ”

“ From Rachel Cowley to Miss Hardcastle.
It has fallen out exactly as Mrs. Allen predicted: my restlessness has done no more than to weary my body; my mind travels to you, and I must humour it. We will not talk however of those, who, with palpitating hearts, are, as they journey on, thinking of their first reception, and the embarrassments of an introduction to beings of an higher order than such poor mortals as croud this busy scene. How I should enjoy your defeat, Lucy, when your eyes, for the first time, behold "My fairest amongst women," [Pg 212] an epithet you have so unmercifully rallied. ”

“ From Miss Cowley to Miss Hardcastle.
"Six mails due from Lisbon! and yet Rachel Cowley talks with contentment of the celestial weather!" To be sure she does, my dear Miss Hardcastle, and for the simplest reason on earth. If I be disappointed, Horace is not; and I can subsist upon his happiness, and be thankful. Besides, it is something in my favour to reflect, that the very elements can be obstinate as well as myself. ”

“ Serge has, my dear Lucy, risen within these few last days to veneration. I have even neglected my bounden duty to my dear Sir Murdoch, in order to watch Mr. Serge in his solitary walks in the avenue. We understand each other. He talks to me of his idol Caroline: asks me a thousand questions about Mr. Hardcastle; and wonders that he never heard Counsellor Steadman mention so extraordinary a man! Then he stops, looks in my face, and says with a sigh, “What would I give to see my Caroline as healthy as you, Miss Cowley? But she is as good as you are. ”

“ Alas! what am I the better for riches! One child who has been the prop of my every comfort, is sinking into an untimely grave! a second, so trained as to be useless; and the third, who was my pride and pleasure, the property of a villain! I must tell you, Sir Murdoch, all the bitterness of my soul. It has for some time been in my mind, how to make that wealth which Providence has placed in my hands a blessing to my children. ”

“ Yet I have my father: but that father is a source of my deepest sorrow! I see he is deceiving himself; that he cherishes the most fallacious of hopes: he thinks me better, because my pains are less acute. He sees not, that nature, worn out in the unequal struggle, is passively yielding to the inevitable, though still suspended stroke; and I have not the courage to tell him, that his Caroline is every hour hastening to her grave. A fever which eludes his notice, and profuse nightly perspirations, to which he is a stranger, must soon be terminated. ”

“ You would be as fond of the little wife as we are, my dear Lucretia,” continues the good man, “if you knew her; she is a pretty, amiable creature, and has won my heart already. I trust I shall live to share the happiness to which I have been useful. Philip is a worthy lad, and he is my peculiar care: have no fears for him, for he is able to walk alone, we want no tutors. So you may tell Mr. Flamall, if you please: and Philip’s mother may rest satisfied that his conduct is such as reflects no dishonour on his character. ”

“ But to render your daughter happy, you must be less susceptible to impressions so unfriendly to your health and comforts.” “They have ceased to be afflictive,” answered he; “for I can now say with Job, ‘My sorrows came in upon me as a wide breaking in of waters; in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me; but my deliverer was at my right hand to save me.’ His arm of mercy has been stretched out for me also, and ‘I will praise him whilst I have my being.’ But let me tell my child her father’s story,” added he pensively smiling.—“Another time,” replied I, “will be better for us both.” ”

“ Snughead's discourse on the inefficacy of good works without faith, I was composing the lecture which such an instance of my obduracy of heart as the one that stared me in the face, would have called from our christian mother. Unable to reach the purity, and I had almost said the divine eloquence which flowed in her lessons, I endeavoured to recall her often repeated words: "You have, Rachel," would she say, "an erring, but a faithful admonitress in your bosom; you will never act wrong without feeling that you are deviating. ”