at it. The offer was too agreeable to
be rejected, and these ladies met after so long an enforced separation
with a joy not to be imagined by any heart less susceptible than theirs
of the tender and delicate sensations of friendship. Louisa was almost
as constantly in Mr Morgan's room in the day time as his wife, though
she kept out of his sight, and thus they had full opportunity of
conversing together; for though the sick man often called Mrs Morgan,
yet as soon as he saw she was in the chamber he sunk again into that
state of stupefaction from which he never recovered. Mrs Morgan put a
bed up in his room, and lay there constantly, but as he was as
solicitous to know she was present in the night, as in the day, she
could never quite undress herself the whole time of his sickness.

In this condition Mr Morgan lay for three months, when death released
him from this world; and brought a seasonable relief to Mrs Morgan,
whose health was so impaired by long confinement and want of quiet rest
that she could not much longer have supported it; and vexation had
before so far impaired her constitution that nothing could have enabled
her to undergo so long a fatigue, but the infinite joy she received from
Miss Mancel's company.

When Mr Morgan's will was opened, it appeared that he had left his wife
an estate which fell to him about a month before the commencement of his
illness, where we now live. The income of it is a thousand pounds a
year, the land was thoroughly stocked and the house in good repair. Mr
Morgan had at his marriage settled a jointure on his wife of four
hundred pounds a year rent charge, and in a codicil made just after his
sister's wedding, he bequeathed her two thousand pounds in ready money.

After Mrs Morgan had settled all her affairs, it was judged necessary
that, for the recovery of her health, she should go to Tunbridge, to
which place Miss Mancel accompanied her. As Mrs Morgan's dress confined
her entirely at home, they were not in the way of making many
acquaintances; but Lady Mary Jones being in the house, and having long
been known to Miss Mancel, though no intimacy had subsisted between
them, they now became much connected. The two friends had agreed to
retire into the country, and though both of an age and fortune to enjoy
all the pleasures which most people so eagerly pursue, they were
desirous of fixing in a way of life where all their satisfactions might
be rational and as conducive to eter