ss, their uncomplying habits, the
odious tyranny of their tempers, were favorite themes with her, dashed
with allusions to every connubial contingency, from alimony to the
measles in the nursery! At last, possibly because, by such frequent
recurrence to the same subjects, she had no longer anything new to say
on them, or perhaps--it is just possible--that the themes themselves had
less interest for others than for herself, her sisters seemed to reply
less regularly than of old. Their answers were shorter and drier; and
they appeared neither to care so much for sympathy and condolence as
formerly; and, in fact, as Lady Augusta said to herself, "They were
growing inured to ill-treatment!" And if half of us in this world only
knew of the miseries we are daily suffering, and which sympathetic
friends are crying over, what a deal of delightful affliction might we
enjoy that we now are dead to! What oppressive governments do we live
under, what cruel taskmasters, what ungrateful publics, not to speak of
the more touching sorrows of domestic life,--the undervaluing parents
and unsympathizing wives! Well, one thing is a comfort: there are dear
kind hearts in mourning over all these for us, anxiously looking for the
day we may awaken to a sense of our own misery!

It was of a cheery spring morning, sunlit and breezy, when, in the
chirping songs of birds, the rustling leaves, and fast-flowing rivulets,
Nature seems to enjoy a more intense vitality, that the Earl sat at
breakfast with his daughter. A fairer prospect could hardly be seen than
that which lay before the open windows in front of them. The green lawn,
dotted with clumps of ancient trees, inclined with many a waving slope
to the sea, which in a long narrow arm pierced its way between two
jutting headlands,--the one bold, rocky, and precipitous; the other
grass-covered and flowery, reflecting its rich tints in the glassy water
beneath. The sea was, indeed, calm and still as any lake, and, save
when a low, surging sound arose within some rocky cavern, as silent and
noiseless. The cattle browsed down to the very water's edge, and the
nets of the fishermen hung to dry over the red-berried foliage of
the arbutus. They who looked--when they did, perchance, look on this
scene--gazed with almost apathy on it. Their eyes never brightened as
the changing sunlight cast new effects upon the scene. Nor was this
indifference the result of any unconsciousness of its beauty. A few
mont