herself with an
indignation, foreign to her general mildness, against women who are
guilty of this fashionable, this dishonorable indelicacy."

"Well, but Charles," said Sir John "you must positively assume a little
dejection, to diversify the business. It will give interest to your
countenance and pathos to your manner, and tenderness to your accent.
And you must forget all attentions, and neglect all civilities. And you
must appear absent, and _distrait_ and _reveur_; especially while your
fate hangs in some suspense. And you must read Petrarch, and repeat
Tibullus, and write sonnets. And when you are spoken to, you must not
listen. And you must wander in the grove by moonshine, and talk to the
Oreads, and the Dryads, and the Naiads; oh no, unfortunately, I am
afraid there are no Naiads within hearing. You must make the woods vocal
with the name of Lucilla; luckily 'tis such a poetical name that Echo
won't be ashamed to repeat it. I have gone through it all, Charles, and
know every highway and byway in the map of love. I will, however, be
serious for one moment, and tell you for your comfort, that though at
your age I was full as much in for it as you are now, yet after ten
years' union, Lady Belfield has enabled me to declare

"How much the wife is dearer than the bride."

A tear glistened in her soft eyes, at this tender compliment.

Just at that moment, Lucilla happened to cross the lawn at a distance.
At sight of her, I could not, as I pointed to her, forbear exclaiming in
the words of Sir John's favorite poet,

There doth beauty dwell,
There most conspicuous, e'en in outward shape,
Where dawns the high expression of a MIND.

"This is very fine," said Sir John, sarcastically; "I admire all you
young enthusiastic philosophers, with your intellectual refinement. You
pretend to be captivated only with _mind_. I observe, however, that
previous to your raptures, you always take care to get this mind lodged
in a fair and youthful form. This mental beauty is always prudently
enshrined in some elegant corporeal frame, before it is worshiped. I
should be glad to see some of these intellectual adorers in love with
the mind of an old or ugly woman. I never heard any of you fall into
ecstasies in descanting on the mind of your grandmother." After some
further irony, they left me to indulge my meditations, in the nature of
which a single hour had made so pleasant a revolution.

CHAPTE