then God forgive him. He will be guilty of
a crime against the purest attachment of the best of hearts, as well as
against truth and honor. I hope he may be worthy of you, and I am sure
he will. He is now in Bath, however, and will soon be with us."

"I am divided, Agnes, by two principles--if they may be called such--or
if you will, by two moods of mind, or states of feeling; one of them
is faith and trust in his affection--how can I doubt it?--the other is
malady, I believe, a gloom, an occasional despondency for which I cannot
account, and which I am not able to shake off. My faith and trust,
however, will last, and his return will dispel the other."

This, in fact, was the true state of the faithful girl's heart. From
the moment Osborne went to travel, her affection, though full of the
tenderest enthusiasm, lay under the deep shadow of that gloom, which was
occasioned by the first, and we may say the only act of insincerity she
was ever guilty of towards her father. The reader knows that even this
act was not a deliberate one, but merely the hurried evasion of a young
and bashful girl, who, had her sense of moral delicacy been less acute,
might have never bestowed a moment's subsequent consideration upon it.
Let our fair young readers, however, be warned even by this very
slight deviation from truth, and let them also remember that one act of
dissimulation may, in the little world of their own moral sentiments and
affections, lay the foundation for calamities under which their hopes
and their happiness in consequence of that act may absolutely perish.
Still are we bound to say that Jane's deportment during the period,
stipulated upon for Osborne's absence was admirably decorous, and
replete with moral beauty. Her moments of enjoyment derived from his
letters, were fraught with an innocent simplicity of delight in fine
keeping with a heart so fall of youthful fervor and attachment. And when
her imagination became occasionally darkened by that gloom which she
termed her malady, nothing could be more impressive than the tone of
deep and touching piety which mingled with and elevated her melancholy
into a cheerful solemnity of spirit, that swayed by its pensive dignity
the habits and affections of her whole family.

'Tis true she was one of a class rarely to be found amoung even the
highest of her own sex, and her attachment was consequently that of a
heart utterly incapable of loving twice. Her first affection was too