mpression, poor girl though she were, that her
little world, the small horizon of her own secluded hamlet, was made for
her, and for her only; and if this persuasion had needed any additional
confirmation, such confirmation would have been found in the universal
admiration of the village beaux, and the envy, almost as general, of the
village belles, particularly in the latter; the envy of rival beauties
being, as every body knows, of all flatteries the most piquant and
seducing--in a word, the most genuine and real. The only person from
whom Hannah Colson ever heard that rare thing called truth, was her
friend and school-fellow, Lucy Meadows, a young woman two or three years
older than herself in actual age, and half a lifetime more advanced in
the best fruits of mature age, in clearness of judgment, and steadiness
of conduct.

A greater contrast of manner and character than that exhibited between
the light-headed and light-hearted beauty, and her mild and quiet
companion could hardly be imagined. Lucy was pretty too, very pretty;
but it was the calm, sedate, composed expression, the pure alabaster
complexion, the soft dove-like eye, the general harmony and delicacy of
feature and of form that we so often observe in a female _Friend_;
and her low gentle voice, her retiring deportment, and quaker-like
simplicity of dress were in perfect accordance with that impression. Her
clearness of intellect, also, and rectitude of understanding, were such
as are often found amongst that intelligent race of people; although
there was an intuitive perception of character and motive, a fineness
of observation under that demure and modest exterior, that, if Lucy had
ever in her life been ten miles from her native village, might have been
called knowledge of the world.

How she came by this quality, which some women seem to possess by
instinct, Heaven only knows! Her early gravity of manner, and sedateness
of mind, might be more easily accounted for. Poor Lucy was an orphan,
and had from the age of fourteen been called upon to keep house for her
only brother, a young man of seven or eight-and-twenty, well to do in
the world, who, as the principal carpenter of Aberleigh, had had much
intercourse with the Colsons in the way of business, and was on the most
friendly terms with the whole family.

With one branch of that family James Meadows would fain have been upon
terms nearer and dearer than those of friendship. Even before John
Colson