Puslapio vaizdai
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"wide extended evil!" said she. "Three generations, blafted by me, may "curfe the hour when I was born. "Yet, my murdered father! thy be

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nignant spirit, even in the pangs of "death forgave me. Will my flan. "dered babes be inexorable? But I "shall not hear their reproaches. The "time is not far diftant when I may "speak with an expectation of being "believed. I will justify to lord Mon"teith the fufpected, because prema"ture birth of his fon. O infupport"table anguish! that fuch juftification "fhould be required of me."

Mifs Evans repeated this conversa. tion to her father and Henry. The latter praised the greatnefs of foul which dictated these sentiments.

"Your interesting friend, my dear "child, does indeed repent," said Mr.

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Evans. "No vindictive rage, felf-acquitted accufations of others, mingle with her true remorfe. She properly appreciates the degree of "her own culpability; nor does any "remaining affection for her feducer "lurk in her paffionate reproaches. She "feems like the penitent described by "our immortal bard,

--"To repent her, as it is an evil, "And takes the shame with joy."

"To fuch contrition we are warranted "to hope that the golden gates of " mercy will be unclosed."

CHAP. XLIII.

Hail wedded love!--by thee,
Founded in reason, loyal, just, and

Relations dear, and all the charities

pure,

Of father, fon, and brother, first were known.

MILTON.

GRIEF, the fwift anticipator of time, continued to prey on Geraldine's youthHer decay was visible to

ful cheek.

every beholder. But Lucy Evans, still liftening to the flattery of hope, believed that another and another day would bring the defired amendment. Paffionately admiring the beauties of nature, she wooed the tardy fpring to approach, and continued to repeat the well-known description;

-Airs, vernal airs,

Able to cure all fadnefs but defpair.

Despair

Defpair was, however, the mortal difeafe, under which her friend laboured. Like Shenftone's interefting Jeffy, the faw in every object fome reproach of her folly, or fome memento of her former happiness. "What have I," he would fay to herself," to do with hope; and "what without hope is life?"

Engroffed wholly by her friend's diftrefs, Lucy dedicated all her time and thoughts to her fervice and amufement. "If I could fee that faded "cheek blush again!" he would fay.

Surely her appetite leaves her. I "watch her fleepless couch till I fink "with weariness. I wake, and the "first object which the lamp fhews me " is her unclosed eyes. I offend my "own feelings to affume cheerfulness. "fhe fometimes fmiles, but it is fuch "a fickly fmile, fo unlike its former "exhilarating brilliancy, it speaks fo "plainly,

"plainly, I will even feem diverted to "footh my apprehenfive Lucy."

Henry Powerscourt often reproved this extreme folicitude; blamed her for being engroffed by one object; and pleaded his prior right to her attention, and her promife of making him happy. O, talk not to me of feftal

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days and happy vows," he would

reply, "when every hour prefents to "me the affecting fpectacle of decli

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ning loveliness! Surely, Henry, you "never loved our Geraldine, if you "can now think of any one but her."

It was one lovely fpring-day, that Lucy prevailed upon her friend to accompany her into the parfonage-garden, to look at the bursting germs of the lilac, and the honey-fuckle's tender green. They had proceeded to Nerina's bower before the trembling knees of Geraldine required reft. When a little recovered,

VOL. III.

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