vapid
dullness. She languished for the pleasures she had quitted, and he for
the comforts he had lost. Opposite inclinations led to opposite
pursuits; difference of taste however, needed not to have led to a
total disunion, had there been on the part of the lady such a degree of
attachment as might have induced a spirit of accommodation, or such a
fund of principle as might have taught her the necessity of making those
sacrifices which affection, had it existed, would have rendered
pleasant, or duty would have made light, had she been early taught
self-government."

Lucilla, smiling, said, "she hoped Sir John had a little over-charged
the picture." He defended himself by declaring, "he drew from the life,
and that from his long observations he could present us with a whole
gallery of such portraits." He left me to continue my walk with the two
Miss Stanleys.

The more I conversed with Lucilla, the more I saw that good breeding in
her was only the outward expression of humility, and not an art employed
for the purpose of enabling her to do without it. We continued to
converse on the subject of Miss Flam's fondness for the gay world. This
introduced a natural expression of my admiration of Miss Stanley's
choice of pleasures and pursuits so different from those of most other
women of her age.

With the most graceful modesty she said, "Nothing humbles me more than
compliments; for when I compare what I hear with what I feel, I find the
picture of myself drawn by a flattering friend so utterly unlike the
original in my own heart, that I am more sunk by my own consciousness of
the want of resemblance, than elated that another has not discovered it.
It makes me feel like an imposter. If I contradict this favorable
opinion, I am afraid of being accused of affectation; and if I silently
swallow it, I am contributing to the deceit of passing for what I am
not." This ingenious mode of disclaiming flattery only raised her in my
esteem, and the more, as I told her such humble renunciation of praise
could only proceed from that inward principle of genuine piety and
devout feeling which made so amiable a part of her character.

"How little," said she, "is the human heart known except to him who made
it! While a fellow creature may admire our apparent devotion, he who
appears to be its object, witnesses the wandering of the heart, which
seems to be lifted up to him. He sees it roving to the ends of the
earth, busied about any thin