Puslapio vaizdai
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encouraging an addrefs which wanted the folemn fanction of paternal approbation. If lord Monteith's paffion was fincere, it would not be repreffed by difficulties; and if it ftood the trial, fhe knew the warmth of fir William's affection to her too well to fear his final rejection, when he fhould know that her happiness depended upon his affent.

If my readers think these refolutions too magnanimous to correfpond with the character of a young lady accuftomed even to that folicitous indulgence which prevents our wifhes, who never viewed the world but on its brightest fide, and who never faw

"Hard unkindnefs' alter'd eye
"Mock the tear it forc'd to flow;"

let it be remembered, that he had in Mrs. Evans a friend of a fuperior caft to what most heireffes can ever hope to poffefs; a friend who, having no finifter

finifter views, had no occafion for fervility or flattery;-a friend, who to an exalted turn of mind united the courage to enforce unpleasant truths, and generofity to overlook casual errors.

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We have seen that gratitude to fir William reconciled Mrs. Evans to the painful task of attending lady Powerfcourt during her long illness. When death terminated what fhe conceived to be her duty in that particular, fhe confidered the fituation of his daughter. Young, amiable, idolized, poffeffed of fuperior beauty and uncommon vivacity, by what more noble method could fhe evince her gratitude to the father, than by showing the unwary girl the fhoals and quickfands which abound in the voyage of life?

Mrs. Evans's early knowledge of what is called the great world convinced her, that though refinement may interpofe G 5

its flimfy veil, the unamiable paffions prevail in the higher circles as much as in the cottage; and that the pilgrim who wishes to pursue a fafe course must unite the ferpent with the dove. While, therefore, fhe ftrongly recommended to Mifs Powerscourt the extirpation, not the concealment, of every ungenerous, violent, and felfish principle, as the happieft means of enfuring internal peace, The taught her to apprehend external danger from the violence and selfishness of others, however concealed by the fair appearance of polished manners, or even by profeffions of attachment. But, above all, the strongly imprinted on her pupil's mind a veneration for her father's character. She not only pointed out his active benevolence, patient gentlenefs, and firm integrity, but led her to confider the general propriety of his opinions upon any fubject with which

he

and

he was thoroughly acquainted;
though his reclufe habits had caft an air
of fingularity over his natural good
fense, yet his plain firm ftile of think-
ing was not only better but wifer than
that flexible judgment which bends,
contracts, or expands, as the world,
that is, as caprice determines. Nothing
could be more judicious than these in-
ftructions. Mifs Powerscourt's parts
were lively and brilliant, quick in difco-
vering the ridiculous, and powerful in
expofing it. Though virtue, benevo-
lence, and fond indulgence, must have
obtained the warm affection of her grate-
ful heart, her respect for fuch a father
could only be founded on the perfuafion
which she had imbibed in her early youth
of the natural fuperiority of his unculti-
vated understanding.

The consciousness of yielding to a
weaknefs which Mrs. Evans would dif-
approve,

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approve, had kept her from informing Lucy of the state of her heart prior to lord Monteith's declaration, and the fame fentiment forbade her discovering any ftrong uneasiness at her father's rejection of his addreffes. In relating the affair she only observed with a suppressed sigh, that she thought his lordship infinitely the most amiable and deferving of any of her fuitors; but fince her father difapproved the connexion, fhe fhould acquiefce in his decifion, and heartily wish the earl happy with fome other lady: in which wish, however, it may be queftioned whether fhe did not make a little ufe of the long bow.

The enamoured earl was not at this time in fo quiefcent a ftate.

quite in a humour for

Or,

He was

Moving accidents by flood and field;"

For hair breadth 'fcapes in th' imminent

"deadly breach."

One

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