raged together, inexplicably mixed, and so fearful and painful to behold, that Mr. Waldegrave gave it up, not daring to trespass on the mind's disease, or to wake that dream that brought such wild accents, such shuddering agony forth from him who would neither be soothed, or served, or civilized. Nor was he spared his own bitter lesson. He saw what neglect had done; the baffled spirit; the ruffled heart; years misused; and, with such great capacity, lost wasted for all useful purpose. The only compensation that now lay in his power, he made. His own idea of things had received a deep shake; he now painted his selfishness, his crime, in their proper colours; he had almost ceased to confound good and evil; he began to see the mighty sin of the path in which he had walked, regulated by no moral law, restricted by a convenient sort of religion. He was, in short, an altered man! frightened, in point of fact, by his own shadow. To this shadow, however, it was now his delight to look, and, in default of all other information, his man of business was sent for from town, with directions to bring his will with him; and with this man of business, and this will, we must leave Mr. Waldegrave to conclude our history. CHAPTER XI. It is not in the tempest and storms of passions we can reflect, but afterwards when the waters have gone over our soul. MRS. JAMESON. The curse of Reuben was upon them all, “unstable as water, thou shalt not excel !" It was twenty years after this time, that Miss Aylmer again returned to England; and as Chateaubriand says, "twenty years added to the skirt of a dress, must make the steps none the lighter." She brought back no one of the friends, Mrs. Milman, the butler, or her old nurse, that she had taken with her; their bones lay buried in a foreign land! even of her little puppy dog, there was nothing left but his soft glossy skin, and that was packed in in a glass case, and travelled home with her. Neither was Miss Aylmer the same; the soft interest of her face was gone; but it had settled into that of a decidedly handsome woman. She had great powers of entertainment, and she had learnt to use them. With a latent turn for satire, she would talk down young men, in a moment of their most imposing confidence; she seemed to know the precise current value of pretension in the male species; and observed with derision, how she could make them betray each other, if she gave them the least encouragement, or hope, of gaining herself and her fine property. "The devil held his tongue,' said Luther,"till I won him with a florin : and it was well laid out ;" and even Mr. Worthington would come and confess with a confidential squeeze of the hand, it was a great consolation to him in his wife's uncertain health, to know that she was still single. But Miss Aylmer never committed herself; and checked admiration for her house and lands in a moment, by her formidable and incredulous smile, the raising of an eyebrow, and her quick perception of the ridiculous; turning the luckless lovers of gold upon themselves, and their own folly; and seeing them precipitately back out of the scrape into which her wealth had led them. She, in short, seemed fully aware of the extent of the privileges matured years had given her. There was no sculking into brevet rank it was still Miss Aylmer — she gloried in the distinction, and was proud of its every letter! She found there was much to enjoy in the easy dignity she had assumed: she wished other single ladies to do the same: she could not bear to see them seeking to be chaperoned by married women, young enough to be their daughters. What had they to fear? their very age protected them. It was, then, her wish to set a new example to : |