CHAP. II.

"When Adam is introduced by Milton, describing Eve in Paradise, and relating to the Angel the impressions he felt upon seeing her at her first creation, he does not represent her like a Grecian Venus, by her shape or features, but by the lustre of her mind, which shone in them, and gave to them their power of charming."

CLARINDA improved daily in the acquirements of her mind, the powers of her understanding, and the unstudied graces of her deportment. She was beautiful too; but her beauty was of that sort which affects the heart more than it immediately strikes the eye. Her face was the picture of her mind; it beamed with

sense,

sense, animation, innocence, and goodhumour.

Sixteen years had been numbered since Clarinda was snatched from the waves, twelve of which she had been an inhabitant of the Castle, and the companion of Sir William's solitude, who on the same day completed his fiftieth year.

Clarinda petitioned Sir William that his birthday might be celebrated at the Castle; and, after some persuasion, he yielded to her entreaty, to renew a custom he had long neglected.

Preparations were made, invitations dis persed; and when the festive day arrived, the Castle was crowded with guests. At the dawn of that day, Clarinda arose, with spirits light as air, to acquit herself of the charge received from Sir William, when they separated on the preceding night, and to perform a task in which she always experienced a high gratifica tion; this was, to distribute the birthday offerings of Sir William's bounty

among

among the neighbouring poor-a custom which had never been omitted.

Where helpless age, agonizing pain, pale sickness, or pining sorrow dweltwhere poverty's iron hand bowed down the spirit, or conscious error had nipped the opening bud of domestic comfort, Clarinda's approach was often hailed as the messenger of mercy, and the blessings of the afflicted followed her steps. As she turned toward the Castle, she stopped at a cottage of the superior kind, where a lovely woman, fallen from better days, mourned the loss of a beloved husband, whom adverse circumstances had precipitated into an early grave, and wept over the smiling pledge of their affection, while a worthy parent shared her griefs, and imbittered her destiny.

Here Clarinda had imagined to herself a painful task. It is the office of most exalted humanity to relieve those who, sunk from affluence to penury, have been refined by education, and taught to cherish

ideas

ideas which aggravate the severity of their fate. Engrossed by these reflections, Clarinda reached the cottage in the wood, where she believed the inhabitants prepared for her reception; and gently tapping at the door, was conducted by a young rustic girl to her mistress. The afflicted widow, whose situation had before been made known to Sir William, excited commiseration, and consequently found relief, had, with an affectionate mother and an infant boy, been removed by the 'Baronet's compassion, from the cabin of one of the poor shepherds, who dwelt at the foot of the cliffs, and who had known them in their prosperous days, to the little house in the wood, where Clarinda was directed to find them by Mrs. Willowby, who, as the bearer of Sir William's bounty, had been their frequent visitor. It was the first time Clarinda had ever entered this cottage, though, from its windows, she had often been observed by

VOL. I.

C

its

The old lady assisted to convey her daughter back to her apartment, while the child hung upon the knees of the gentleman, entreating him, with all the eloquence of artless innocence, to send death away from his dear mamma, as he used to do.

Mrs. Lenarvon began to recover, and her mother withdrew with the stranger into an adjoining room, from whence they soon returned, some explanations seeming to have taken place, which had changed the expression of anguish, before impressed upon the features of the gentleman, into a sort of placid melancholy. He embraced the child with affection, pressed Mrs. Lenarvon's hand with the chastened tenderness of the purest friendship; and bowing to Clarinda, with a look strongly expressive of admiration, he silently withdrew.

That curiosity so natural to young and ardent minds, was strongly excited in Clarinda's bosom. Mrs. Lenarvon saw it,

and