turned into commercial speculations, till the national character

exhibited a phenomenon in the history of the human mind--a head
enthusiastically enterprising, with cold selfishness of heart.

And woman, lovely woman!--they charm everywhere--still there is a
degree of prudery, and a want of taste and ease in the manners of

the American women, that renders them, in spite of their roses and
lilies, far inferior to our European charmers. In the country,

they have often a bewitching simplicity of character; but, in the
cities, they have all the airs and ignorance of the ladies who give

the tone to the circles of the large trading towns in England.
They are fond of their ornaments, merely because they are good,

and not because they embellish their persons; and are more gratified
to inspire the women with jealousy of these exterior advantages,

than the men with love. All the frivolity which often (excuse me,
Madam) renders the society of modest women so stupid in England,

here seemed to throw still more leaden fetters on their charms.
Not being an adept in gallantry, I found that I could only keep

myself awake in their company by making downright love to them.
"But, not to intrude on your patience, I retired to the track

of land which I had purchased in the country, and my time passed
pleasantly enough while I cut down the trees, built my house, and

planted my different crops. But winter and idleness came, and I
longed for more elegant society, to hear what was passing in the

world, and to do something better than vegetate with the animals
that made a very considerable part of my household. Consequently,

I determined to travel. Motion was a substitute for variety of
objects; and, passing over immense tracks of country, I exhausted

my exuberant spirits, without obtaining much experience. I every
where saw industry the fore-runner and not the consequence, of

luxury; but this country, everything being on an ample scale, did
not afford those picturesque views, which a certain degree of

cultivation is necessary gradually to produce. The eye wandered
without an object to fix upon over immeasureable plains, and lakes

that seemed replenished by the ocean, whilsteternal forests of
small clustering trees, obstructed the circulation of air, and

embarrassed the path, without gratifying the eye of taste. No
cottage smiling in the waste, no travellers hailed us, to give life

to silent nature; or, if perchance we saw the print of a footstep
in our path, it was a dreadfulwarning to turn aside; and the head

ached as if assailed by the scalping knife. The Indians who hovered
on the skirts of the European settlements had only learned of their

neighbours to plunder, and they stole their guns from them to
do it with more safety.

"From the woods and back settlements, I returned to the towns,
and learned to eat and drink most valiantly; but without entering

into commerce (and I detested commerce) I found I could not live
there; and, growing heartily weary of the land of liberty and vulgar

aristocracy, seated on her bags of dollars, I resolved once more
to visit Europe. I wrote to a distant relation in England, with

whom I had been educated, mentioning the vessel in which I intended
to sail. Arriving in London, my senses were intoxicated. I ran

from street to street, from theater to theater, and the women of
the town (again I must beg pardon for my habitual frankness)

appeared to me like angels.
"A week was spent in this thoughtless manner, when, returning

very late to the hotel in which I had lodged ever since my arrival,
I was knocked down in a private street, and hurried, in a state of

insensibility, into a coach, which brought me hither, and I only
recovered my senses to be treated like one who had lost them. My

keepers are deaf to my remonstrances and enquiries, yet assure me
that my confinement shall not last long. Still I cannot guess,

though I weary myself with conjectures, why I am confined, or in
what part of England this house is situated. I imagine sometimes

that I hear the sea roar, and wished myself again on the Atlantic,
till I had a glimpse of you."*

A few moments were only allowed to Maria to comment on this
narrative, when Darnford left her to her own thoughts, to the "never

ending, still beginning," task of weighing his words, recollecting
his tones of voice, and feeling them reverberate on her heart.

* The introduction of Darnford as the deliverer of Maria
in a former instance, appears to have been an after-thought

of the author. This has occasioned the omission of any
allusion to that circumstance in the preceding narration.

EDITOR. [Godwin's note]
CHAPTER 4

PITY, and the forlornseriousness of adversity, have both been
considered as dispositions favourable to love, while satirical

writers have attributed the propensity to the relaxing effect of
idleness; what chance then had Maria of escaping, when pity, sorrow,

and solitude all conspired to soften her mind, and nourishromantic
wishes, and, from a natural progress, romantic expectations?

Maria was six-and-twenty. But, such was the native soundness
of her constitution, that time had only given to her countenance

the character of her mind. Revolving thought, and exercised
affections had banished some of the playful graces of innocence,

producing insensibly that irregularity of features which the
struggles of the understanding to trace or govern the strong emotions

of the heart, are wont to imprint on the yielding mass. Grief and
care had mellowed, without obscuring, the bright tints of youth,

and the thoughtfulness which resided on her brow did not take from
the femininesoftness of her features; nay, such was the sensibility

which often mantled over it, that she frequently appeared, like a
large proportion of her sex, only born to feel; and the activity

of her well-proportioned, and even almost voluptuous figure, inspired
the idea of strength of mind, rather than of body. There was a

simplicity sometimes indeed in her manner, which bordered on
infantine ingenuousness, that led people of common discernment to

underrate her talents, and smile at the flights of her imagination.
But those who could not comprehend the delicacy of her sentiments,

were attached by her unfailing sympathy, so that she was very
generally beloved by characters of very different descriptions;

still, she was too much under the influence of an ardentimagination
to adhere to common rules.

There are mistakes of conduct which at five-and-twenty prove
the strength of the mind, that, ten or fifteen years after, would

demonstrate its weakness, its incapacity to acquire a sane judgment.
The youths who are satisfied with the ordinary pleasures of life,

and do not sigh after ideal phantoms of love and friendship, will
never arrive at great maturity of understanding; but if these

reveries are cherished, as is too frequently the case with women,
when experience ought to have taught them in what human happiness

consists, they become as useless as they are wretched. Besides,
their pains and pleasures are so dependent on outward circumstances,

on the objects of their affections, that they seldom act from the
impulse of a nerved mind, able to choose its own pursuit.

Having had to struggle incessantly with the vices of mankind,
Maria's imagination found repose in pourtraying the possible virtues

the world might contain. Pygmalion formed an ivory maid, and longed
for an informing soul. She, on the contrary, combined all the

qualities of a hero's mind, and fate presented a statue in which
she might enshrine them.

We mean not to trace the progress of this passion, or recount
how often Darnford and Maria were obliged to part in the midst of

an interesting conversation. Jemima ever watched on the tip-toe
of fear, and frequently separated them on a false alarm, when they

would have given worlds to remain a little longer together.
A magic lamp now seemed to be suspended in Maria's prison,

and fairy landscapes flitted round the gloomy walls, late so blank.
Rushing from the depth of despair, on the seraph wing of hope,

she found herself happy.--She was beloved, and every emotion
was rapturous.

To Darnford she had not shown a decidedaffection; the fear
of outrunning his, a sure proof of love, made her often assume a

coldness and indifference foreign from her character; and, even
when giving way to the playful emotions of a heart just loosened

from the frozen bond of grief, there was a delicacy in her manner
of expressing her sensibility, which made him doubt whether it was

the effect of love.
One evening, when Jemima left them, to listen to the sound of

a distant footstep, which seemed cautiously to approach, he seized
Maria's hand--it was not withdrawn. They conversed with earnestness

of their situation; and, during the conversation, he once or twice
gently drew her towards him. He felt the fragrance of her breath,

and longed, yet feared, to touch the lips from which it issued;
spirits of purity seemed to guard them, while all the enchanting

graces of love sported on her cheeks, and languished in her eyes.