From hard and actual proof;
Preserve some dear delusions as they seem,
Since the reality,
How bright soe'er it be,
Shows dull and cold beside our marvellous dream.

"Leave this white page unscored,
This rare realm unexplored,
And let dear Fancy roam there as she will;
Whatever page we turn,
However much we learn,
Let there be something left to dream of still!"

Wherefore, for aught we know,
The golden apples grow
In the green vale to which that pathway leads;
The spirits of the wood
Still haunt its solitude,
And Pan sits piping there among the reeds!

GRIFFITH GAUNT; OR, JEALOUSY.

CHAPTER XVIII.

This Caroline Ryder was a character almost impossible to present so as
to enable the reader to recognize her should she cross his path; so
great was the contradiction between what she was and what she seemed,
and so perfect was the imitation.

She looked a respectable young spinster, with a grace of manner beyond
her station, and a decency and propriety of demeanor that inspired
respect.

She was a married woman, separated from her husband by mutual consent;
and she had had many lovers, each of whom she had loved ardently--for a
little while. She was a woman that brought to bear upon foolish,
culpable loves a mental power that would have adorned the woolsack.

The moment prudence or waning inclination made it advisable to break
with the reigning favorite, she set to work to cool him down by
deliberate coldness, sullenness, insolence; and generally succeeded. But
if he was incurable, she never hesitated as to her course; she smiled
again on him, and looked out for another place: being an invaluable
servant, she got one directly; and was off to fresh pastures.

A female rake; but with the air of a very prude.

A woman, however cunning and resolute, always plays this game at one
great disadvantage; for instance, one day, Caroline Ryder, finding
herself unable to shake off a certain boyish lover, whom she had won and
got terribly tired of, retired from her place, and went home, and left
him blubbering. But by and by, in a retired village, she deposited an
angelic babe of the female sex, with fair hair and blue eyes, the very
image of her abandoned Cherubin. Let me add, as indicating the strange
force of her character, that she concealed this episode from Cherubin
and a