iality."

Rebecca was the youngest, and by far the least handsome daughter of four,
to whom the Reverend Mr. Rymer, a widower, was father. The other sisters
were accounted beauties; and she, from her comparative want of personal
charms, having been less beloved by her parents, and less caressed by
those who visited them, than the rest, had for some time past sought
other resources of happiness than the affection, praise, and indulgence
of her fellow-creatures. The parsonage house in which this family lived
was the forlorn remains of an ancient abbey: it had in later times been
the habitation of a rich and learned rector, by whom, at his decease, a
library was bequeathed for the use of every succeeding resident. Rebecca,
left alone in this huge ruinous abode, while her sisters were paying
stated visits in search of admiration, passed her solitary hours in
reading. She not merely read--she thought: the choicest English books
from this excellent library taught her to _think_; and reflection
fashioned her mind to bear the slights, the mortifications of neglect,
with a patient dejection, rather than with an indignant or a peevish
spirit.

This resignation to injury and contumely gave to her perfect symmetry of
person, a timid eye, a retiring manner, and spread upon her face a placid
sweetness, a pale serenity indicating sense, which no wise connoisseur in
female charms would have exchanged for all the sparkling eyes and florid
tints of her vain and vulgar sisters. Henry's soul was so enamoured of
her gentle deportment, that in his sight she appeared beautiful; while
she, with an understanding competent to judge of his worth, was so
greatly surprised, so prodigiously astonished at the distinction, the
attention, the many offices of civility paid her by him, in preference to
her idolised sisters, that her gratitude for such unexpected favours had
sometimes (even in his presence, and in that of her family) nearly
drowned her eyes with tears. Yet they were only trifles, in which Henry
had the opportunity or the power to give her testimony of his
regard--trifles, often more grateful to the sensible mind than efforts of
high importance; and by which the proficient in the human heart will
accurately trace a passion wholly concealed from the dull eye of the
unskilled observer.

The first cause of amazement to Rebecca in the manners of Henry was, that
he talked with _her_ as well as with her sisters; no visitor else had
done