s, you have been guilty of repeated acts of cruelty. You
have been faithful to your husband, without making him respectable or
happy. You have been virtuous, without the reputation or the peace which
belongs to virtue. You have been charitable without doing good, and
affectionate without having ever made a friend. You have wasted those
attentions on the worthless which the worthy would have delighted to
receive, and those talents on the frivolous which would have been
cherished by the enlightened. You have defeated the use of a fine
understanding by the want of common prudence, and robbed society of the
example of your good qualities by your total inability to resist and
oppose. Inconsideration and vanity have been the joint cause of your
malady. At your age I trust it is not incurable. As you have caught it
by keeping infected company, there is no possible mode of cure but by
avoiding the contagious air they breathe. You have performed your
quarantine with admirable patience. Beware, my dearest niece, of
returning to the scene where the plague rages, till your antidote has
taken its full effect.'

"'I will _never_ return to it, my dear Lady Jane,' cried I, throwing
myself into her arms. 'I do not mean that I will never return to town.
My duty to my lord requires me to be where he is, or where he wishes me
to be. My residence will be the same, but my society shall be changed.'

"'You please me entirely,' replied she. 'In resorting to religion, take
care that you do not dishonor it. Never plead your piety to God as an
apology for your neglect of the relative duties. If the one is soundly
adopted, the others will be correctly performed. There are those who
would delight to throw such a stigma on real Christianity, as to be able
to report that it had extinguished your affections, and soured your
temper. Disappoint them, my sweet niece: while you serve your Maker more
fervently, you must be still more patient with your husband. But while
you bear with his faults, you must not connive at them. If you are in
earnest, you must expect some trials. He who prepares these trials for
you, will support you under them, will carry you through them, will make
them instruments of his glory, and of your own eternal happiness.'

"'Lord Melbury's complaisance to my wishes,' replied I, 'has been
unbounded. As he never controlled my actions when they required control,
I trust he will be equally indulgent now they will be less censurable.
A