have become of her had she been left to her humble fate?" "I know it, I know it! I should have had to toil as my little brothers and sisters have done. Perhaps I should have begged; at the worst, I could but have died without the suspicion of ingratitude, or the sin of marrying where my heart shudders. I know I am now a feeble inexperienced girl, and unable to provide for myself if turned upon the world; but if you have found me unworthy of being your companion, let me be your servant. If my heart is unsusceptible of the feelings you anticipated, the principles which you have bestowed upon me will at least render me faithful. I have not made an ill use of my time, and can do much that you will not find in others." Alas! the tenderness of Lady L had ceased to be more than a theory. She doubted the motives of the poor girl's reluctance to leave her, and threw out hints which could have sprung from nothing but the cruelty of a jealous heart.

Mab was struck dumb-she gazed upon her protectress in amazement-her heart struggled to her throat, and she sunk back in her chair in

an agony of distress. Lady L-felt convinced that she had touched the secret spring of her victim's motives, and swept out of the room in a whirlwind of jealousy and indignation.

From this moment poor Mab offered no further resistance to her fate. She dried her tears, and, though her face was deadly pale, it wore a look of determination to do all that was required of her. Lady L generously forgave her

the crime which was thought to be unequivocally confessed; and the woodbine cottage was furnished in the most elegant style. I had hopes that her extreme youth would accommodate itself to her circumstances, and that her life might hereafter pass in tranquillity and contentment. At all events, no change could be for the worse, where her presence was a burthen, and where she was doomed to undergo the keenest suffering, and as continually admonished that she was indebted in the deepest gratitude.

My speculations, however, were mistaken. In the interval before her marriage, she wandered lonely and disconsolate, without occupa

tion, and apparently without thought. She was striving to drive away reflection, and summon a desperate resolution for the trying occasion, and she succeeded. She went to the altar with the same calmness that supports a criminal to the bar when his fate is certain. Her pretty features were sharpened into the sternness of death, and she spoke the fatal words with the audible precision which we might imagine of a spirit, when the tremors and anxieties of life are past. In the evening there was a fête champêtre for the second-rate persons of the neighbourhood, including all the bridegroom's friends and relations, and the bride's future associates. My heart ached for their vulgarity; but Mab's countenance underwent no change; and Lady L-- moved about with a condescending and benevolent aspect, as though every thing met with her perfect approval, and her heart was gladdened by the happiness she had occasioned.

It would be tedious to relate the miseries of poor Mab's union, or how meekly she persevered in her endeavours to overcome them. There was no situation in which she could

have been placed without performing her duty, but her spirits and her health were not in her power. While, therefore, her husband was inclined to treat her kindly for her submission to his habits, he could not fail of being dissatisfied with the visible efforts which it cost her. He was too much a man of business either to yield or expect any great share of devotion; but he thought it unreasonable that she should shrink from him with disgust. It was unjust to wear a face of such piteous sorrow, and subject him to the suspicion of ill usage. It was obstinate and unheard of to waste away, day by day, without uttering a complaint, or giving him an opportunity to remedy the evil. By degrees his dissatisfaction began to find vent in expostulation. She was taunted coarsely with setting herself too high upon the patronage she had enjoyed, and was again taught to look back to her birth, and consider herself a fortunate being. She did not dispute the propriety of these allusions, and only laboured the more assiduously to prevent their recurrence; but still it was in vain. Her efforts to appear happy did but prove her inability to feel so, and when she

would have seemed least above her station, she was always the least successful. The exertion of a smile only left her to exhaustion and weeping; and her courtesy to her new style of companions was considered strained and supercilious. She could not talk to them in their own way, and she found that her late elevation caused them to misinterpret her feelings with unsparing malice. Her heart sickened at the vain endeavour to please, where it was predetermined that she should fail, and she was accused of disgusting the low tribe by silence and inattention. Whatever she did was wrong. Her timid nature became habitually hesitating and mistrustful of itself, and things went on worse and worse. She was considered a weak and unhappily disposed creature, and her husband presumed to treat her with neglect and contempt. Her resolution and her health became exhausted together; and in less than two months from her marriage, she wept herself upon a bed which was destined to yield her lasting repose.

Lady L, whose benevolent countenance had not been seen at the cottage since she had

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