could not have loved me more, I believe:
but my power over him might have been greater still. I am the happiest
of women in the affection he has proved to me, but I wonder whether it
would exist under ill treatment? If it would not, he still does not love
me as I wish to be loved--if it would, my triumph, my felicity, would be
enhanced." These thoughts were mere phantoms of the brain, and never, by
system, put into action; but, repeatedly indulged, they were practised
by casual occurrences; and the dear-bought experiment of being loved in
spite of her faults, (a glory proud women ever aspire to) was, at
present, the ambition of Miss Milner.

Unthinking woman! she did not reflect, that to the searching eye of Lord
Elmwood, she had faults, with her utmost care to conceal or overcome
them, sufficient to try all his love, and all his patience. But what
female is not fond of experiments? To which, how few do not fall a
sacrifice!

Perfectly secure in the affections of the man she loved, her declining
health no longer threatened her; her declining spirits returned as
before; and the suspicions of her guardian being now changed to the
liberal confidence of a doating lover, she again professed
all her former follies, all her fashionable levities, and indulged them
with less restraint than ever.

For a while, blinded by his passion, Lord Elmwood encouraged and admired
every new proof of her restored happiness; nor till sufferance had
tempted her beyond her usual bounds, did he remonstrate. But she, who,
as his ward, had been ever gentle, and (when he strenuously opposed)
always obedient; became, as a mistress, sometimes haughty, and, to
opposition, always insolent. He was surprised, but the novelty pleased
him. And Miss Milner, whom he tenderly loved, could put on no change, or
appear in no new character that did not, for the time she adopted it,
seem to become her.

Among the many causes of complaint which she gave him, want of oeconomy,
in the disposal of her income, was one. Bills and drafts came upon him
without number, while the account, on her part, of money expended,
amounted chiefly to articles of dress that she sometimes never wore,
toys that were out of fashion before they were paid for, and charities
directed by the force of whim. Another complaint was, as usual, extreme
late hours, and often company that he did not approve.

She was charmed to see his love struggling with his censure--his
politeness with his a