It

atory were filled, they had lost their interest. The children were the next subjects for her Ladyship's ennui to discharge itself upon. Lord Courtland had a son, some years older, and a daughter nearly of the same age as her own. suddenly occurred to her that they must be educated, and that she would educate the girls herself. As the first step, she engaged two governesses, French and Italian; modern treatises on the subject of education were ordered from London-looked at, admired, and arranged on gilded shelves, and sofa-tables; and could their contents have exhaled with the odours of their Russia leather bindings, Lady Juliana's dressing-room would have been, what Sir Joshua Reynolds says every seminary of learning is, "an atmosphere of floating knowledge." But amidst this splendid display of human lore, THE BOOK found no place. She had heard of the Bible, however, and even knew it was a book appointed to be read in churches, and given to poor people, along with Rumford soup 1 and flannel shirts; but as

the rule of life-as the book that alone could make

wise unto salvation, this Christian parent was ignorant as the Hottentot or Hindoo.

Three days beheld the rise, progress, and decline of Lady Juliana's whole system of education; and it would have been well for the children had the trust been delegated to those better qualified to discharge it. But neither of

1[Rumford soup. It is not generally known that the present Royal Institution was originally established for the benefit of the poor, and that the scientific making of soup according to Count Rumford was there initiated.]

the preceptresses were better skilled in the only true knowledge. Signora Cicianai was a bigoted Catholic, whose faith hung upon her beads, and Madame Grignon was an esprit fort, who had no faith in anything but le plaisir. But the Signora's singing was heavenly, and Madame's dancing was divine, and what lacked there more?

So passed the first years of beings training for immortality. The children insensibly ceased to be children, and Lady Juliana would have beheld the increasing height and beauty of her daughter, with extreme disapprobation, had not that beauty, by awakening her ambition, also excited her affection, if the term affection could be applied to that heterogeneous mass of feelings and propensities that "shape had none distinguishable." Lady Juliana had fallen into an error, very common with wiser heads than hers -that of mistaking the effect for the cause. She looked no farther than to her union with Henry Douglas for the foundation of all her unhappiness-it never once occurred to her, that her marriage was only the consequence of something previously wrong; she saw not the headstrong passions that had impelled her to please herself

-no matter at what price. She thought not of the want of principle-she blushed not at the want of delicacy, that had led her to deceive a parent, and elope with a man to whose character she was a total stranger. She therefore considered herself as having fallen a victim to love; and could she only save her daughter from a similar error, she might yet by her means retrieve her fallen fortune. To implant principles

VOL. I.-15

of religion and virtue in her mind, was not within the compass of her own; but she could scoff at every pure and generous affection-she could ridicule every disinterested attachmentand she could expatiate on the never-fading joys that attend on wealth and titles, jewels and equipages and all this she did in the belief that she was acting the part of a most wise and tender parent! The seed, thus carefully sown, promised to bring forth an abundant harvest. At eighteen, Adelaide Douglas was as heartless and bitious as she was beautiful and accomplished; but the surface was covered with flowers, and who would have thought of analysing the soil?

am

It sometimes happens that the very means used, with success, in the formation of one character, produce a totally opposite effect upon another. The mind of Lady Emily Lindore had undergone exactly the same process in its formation as that of her cousin; yet in all things they differed. Whether it were the independence of high birth, or the pride of a mind conscious of its own powers, she had hitherto resisted the sophistry of her governesses, and the solecisms of her aunt. But her notions of right and wrong were too crude to influence the general tenor of her life, or operate as restraints upon a naturally high spirit and impetuous temper. Not all the united efforts of her preceptresses had been able to form a manner for their pupil; nor could their authority restrain her from saying what she thought, and doing what she pleased; and, in spite of both precept and example, Lady Emily remained as insupportably natural

and sincere as she was beautiful and piquante. At six years old, she had declared her intention of marrying her cousin, Edward Douglas ; and, at eighteen, her words were little less equivocal. Lord Courtland, who never disturbed himself about anything, was rather diverted with this juvenile attachment; and Lady Juliana, who cared little for her son, and still less for her niece, only wondered how people could be such fools as to think of marrying for love, after she had told them how miserable it would make them.

1

CHAPTER XXIX

"Unthought of frailties cheat us in the wise; The fool lies hid in inconsistencies."-POPE,

SUCH were the female members of the family to

In

whom Mary was about to be introduced. her mother's heart she had no place, for of her absent husband and neglected daughter she seldom thought; and their letters were scarcely read, and rarely answered. Even good Miss Grizzy's elaborate epistle, in which were curiously entwined the death of her brother, and the birth and christening of her grand-nephew, in a truly Gordian manner, remained disentangled. Had her ladyship only read to the middle of the seventh page, she would have learned the indisposition of her daughter, with the various opinions thereon; but poor Miss Grizzy's labours were vain, for her letter remains a dead letter to this day. Mrs. Douglas was therefore the first to convey the unwelcome intelligence, and to suggest to the mind of the mother that her alienated daughter still retained some claims upon her care and affection; and, although this was done with all the tenderness and delicacy of a gentle and enlightened mind, it called forth the most bitter indignation from Lady Juliana.

She almost raved at what she termed the base