e very intimate connections which young women are so fond of
forming. Every mother should study, almost as carefully as those of her
own, the character of her children's intimate friends. Mrs. Hamilton had
done so, and as we know, never approved of Caroline's intimacy with
Annie, but yet she could not check their intercourse while such intimate
friendship existed between her husband and Montrose Grahame. She knew,
too, that the latter felt pleasure in beholding Caroline the chosen
friend of his daughter; and though she could never hope as Grahame did,
that the influence of her child would improve the character of his, she
had yet sufficient confidence in Caroline at one time to believe that
she would still consider her mother her dearest and truest friend, and
thus counteract the effects of Annie's ill-directed eloquence. In this
hope she had already found herself disappointed; but still, though
Caroline refused her sympathy, and bestowed it, as so many other girls
did, on a companion of her own age, she relied perhaps too fondly on
those principles she had so carefully instilled in early life, and
believed that no stain would sully the career of her much-loved child.
If Mrs. Hamilton's affection in this instance completely blinded her, if
she acted too weakly in not at once breaking this closely woven chain of
intimacy, her feelings, when she knew all, were more than sufficient
chastisement. Could the noble, the honourable, the truth-loving mother
for one instant imagine that Caroline, the child whose early years had
caused her so much pain, had called forth so many tearful prayers--the
child whose dawning youth had been so fair, that her heart had nearly
lost its tremblings--that her Caroline should encourage one young man
merely to indulge in love of power, and what was even worse, to thus
conceal her regard for another? Yet it was even so. Caroline really
believed that not only was she an object of passionate love to the
Viscount, but that she returned the sentiment with equal if not
heightened warmth, and, as the undeniable token of true love, she never
mentioned his name except to her confidant. In the first of these
conjectures she was undoubtedly right; as sincerely as a man of his
character could, Lord Alphingham did love Miss Hamilton, and the
fascination of his manner, his insinuating eloquence, and ever ready
flattery, all combined, might well cause this novice in such matters to
believe her heart was really t