rself. To relieve your apprehensions, however, I will tell you, that
though there have been several competitors for her favor, not one has
been accepted. There has, indeed, this summer been a very formidable
candidate, young Lord Staunton, who has a large estate in the county,
and whom she met on a visit." At these words I felt my fears revive. A
young and handsome peer seemed so redoubtable a rival, that for a moment
I only remembered she was a woman, and forgot that she was Lucilla.

"You may set your heart at rest," said Dr. Barlow, who saw my emotion;
"she heard he had seduced the innocent daughter of one of his tenants,
under the most specious pretense of honorable love. This, together with
the looseness of his religious principles, led her to give his lordship
a positive refusal, though he is neither destitute of talents, nor
personal accomplishments."

How ashamed was I of my jealousy! How I felt my admiration increase! Yet
I thought it was too great before to admit of augmentation. "Another
proposal," said Dr. Barlow, "was made to her father by a man every way
unexceptionable. But she desired him to be informed that it was her
earnest request that he would proceed no further, but spare her the pain
of refusing a gentleman for whose character she entertained a sincere
respect; but being persuaded she could never be able to feel more than
respect, she positively declined receiving his addresses, assuring him,
at the same time, that she sincerely desired to retain, as a friend, him
whom she felt herself obliged to refuse as a husband. She is as far from
the vanity of seeking to make conquest, as from the ungenerous insolence
of using ill those whom her merit has captivated, and her judgment can
not accept."

After admiring in the warmest terms the purity and generosity of her
heart, I pressed Dr. Barlow still further, as to the interior of her
mind. I questioned him as to her early habits, and particularly as to
her religious attainments, telling him that nothing was indifferent to
me which related to Lucilla.

"Miss Stanley," replied he, "is governed by a simple, practical end, in
all her religious pursuits. She reads her Bible, not from habit, that
she may acquit herself of a customary form; not to exercise her
ingenuity by allegorizing literal passages, or spiritualizing plain
ones, but that she may improve in knowledge and grow in grace. She
accustoms herself to meditation, in order to get her mind more deep