mpletely in unison with her
disastrous position. But her heart was perhaps as genuine as her face
was forbidding; for she loved the merry, laughing, handsome Mary,
more as a mother her child, than as a sister nearly of her own
years--that is, exultingly, but anxiously. Every one else foresaw
nothing but prosperity, and joy, and love, in store for Mary. Selina
prayed that it might prove so;--but she prayed with tears in her
eyes, and trembling in her soul! For where are the destinies of
persons thus exquisitely organized--thus full of love and
loveliness--thus readily swayed to joy or sorrow, by the trivial
incidents of life--characterised by what the world calls
happiness--such happiness, I mean, as is enjoyed by the serene and
the prudent, the unexcitable, the unaspiring! Miss Stanley foresaw
only too truly, that the best days likely to be enjoyed by her
sister, were those she was spending under her father's roof--a
general idol--an object of deference and delight to all around.

At the General's housewarming, though not previously introduced into
society, Mary was the queen of the ball; and all present agreed, that
one of the most pleasing circumstances of the evening was to watch the
animated cordiality with which she flew from one to the other of those
old neighbours of Stanley Manor, (whom she alone had managed to
persuade that a dozen miles was no distance to prevent their accepting
her father's invitation;) and not the most brilliant of her young
friends received a more eager welcome, or more sustained attention
throughout the evening, than the few homely elderly people, (such as
my friends the Whittinghams,) who happened to share the hospitality of
General Stanley. I daresay that even _I_, had I found courage to
accept his invitation, should have received from the young beauty some
gentle word, in addition to the kindly smiles with which she was sure
to return my respectful obeisance whenever we met accidentally in the
village.

Mary was dressed in white, with a few natural flowers in her hair,
which, owing to the impetuosity of her movements, soon fell out,
leaving only a stray leaf or two, that would have looked ridiculous
any where but among her rich, but dishevelled locks; and the pleasant
anxieties of the evening imparted such a glow to her usually somewhat
pale complexion, that her beauty is said to have been, that night,
almost supernatural. She was more like the creature of a dream than
one of those w