"that he should be left unhappy; he is "fo uncommonly amiable." "Pray," faid Mrs. Evans, "how "came you to know that he is so un"commonly amiable and excellent?" Mifs Evans confeffed that her informant was Geraldine. "Ah poor Geraldine !" faid Mrs. Evans, "the eye I fee has outstepped "the judgment; I hope it has not miled it. What very amiable qua"lities could fhe difcover in a ball"room? Does the indirect mode of "his purfuing your friend, fince her "father's rejection, argue any exalted "excellence ?" "No," faid Lucy, "indeed it does "not; but do, my dear mother, make "allowances for his very strong attach«ment. I am afraid too my sweet "friend's heart is irrevocably his; and "ought he to marry Henry Powerf « court, "court, all worthy and good as he is, "while her affections are another's." "Your mother's conduct," replied Mrs. Evans, "has fhewn her decided "opinion upon fuch a queftion; nor "has the ever found reafon to regret "the preference which has made her "the wife of the worthieft of men. "Yet, if in the prefent conflict of Mifs "Powerscourt's paffions I could hope "that my warning voice might be heard, "I would entreat her to confider, whe"ther, fince her attachment is not the "refult of long acquaintance and im"partial obfervation, but the tranfient "ftart of fudden preference, it be not "at leaft poffible that her father's plan "for her happiness may be the moft eli"C gible. She can never now have an opportunity of knowing lord Mon"teith's real difpofition previous to the "marriage ceremony. The cautious H3 "lover " "lover will difclofe nothing which is "difagreeable, where he ftudies to re"commend himfelf to favour ; and what " can fhe learn from the vague, or per"haps interested, communications of "others? Charge her then, my dear "Lucy, in your moments of endearment and privacy; if your Geral-. dine's happiness be dear to you, charge "her to reflect on Henry's known vir"tues, his modeft diffidence, ingenu"ous gratitude, and gentle, yet gene rous difpofition: Afk her, if thefe are "not the qualities which muft infure "happiness, and warn her not to mistake "a tranfient liking for an infurmount"able attachment." Mifs Evans burst into tears at her mother's pathetic injunction, and promised obedience. CHAP. X. True dignity is his, whofe tranquil mind blow. BEATTIE, WHILE Youth, with democratic violence, pulls down Reafon from her fovereign feat, and commits the helm to a rebel rout of paffions; Age, finding thefe riotous principles quiet and manageable in his own particular territories, supposes it easy for others to keep them. in equal fubjection, and affirms, that the abfolute unlimited monarchy of the cidevant princess is not only the best mode of government, but actually the most feafible. It is not wonderful that Youth fhould deny the power of those restric give principles which time and experi ence gradually introduce; but certainly Age might remember the fentiments that it once felt. The above observation, though profoundly true in general, is, I confefs, irrelevant to the cafe before us; for fir William Powerfcourt had exactly the fame opinion of love at the time I am treating of, as he had forty years before; and Mrs. Evans was of fo fingu lar a tafte, and had fo thorough a contempt for a "fet of features and complexion," that, like Defdemona, fhe faw her husband's "features in his mind;" for when the felected Mr. Evans, who had no perfonal graces to boaft of, fhe not only encountered embarraffed circumstances, but difpleafed her relations by rejecting a rich and handsome, but abandoned admirer. A few days after the events related in my preceding Chapter had taken place, |