ot
prosper in his hand, she searched for instances of mismanagement, and
combined circumstances to his prejudice, which were not likely to strike
an affectionate friend, who was too confident in the actor to scrutinize
the action. How could she, who loved a brother with the same
unquestioning fidelity as Allan did Walter, condemn the errors of
overflowing affection? Evellin listened in gloomy silence. Too deeply
wounded to endure even this mild censure of his own folly, in the shape
of an apology for his weakness, he sternly enjoined her to avoid that
theme.

Undismayed by such rebuffs, Isabel attempted other topics. She often
assured him she was now more at her ease, than if seated at the head of
the Earl's table, in Castle Bellingham. "I should have been
embarrassed," said she, "and might, perhaps, have acted wrong through my
solicitude to be very right. Our little household is easily catered for;
hence we can devote the more time to our darling babes. Was not the
husbandman's life preferred by the wisest, the most favoured of mankind?
Does it not afford health and peace? Are not our cares innocent, our
enjoyments unenvied? We do not anticipate, with aching hearts, the fall
or the death of a rival; neither do we, after having distorted our faces
with the hilarity of forced merriment in public, meet, in our privacies,
with anger and fear; reproaching each other for some neglect, and
commenting on the frowns of royalty. We need not study to be expert in
ceremony, or adroit in flattery. When nature calls, we take our simple
food, we rest when she requires relaxation, and when rest is satiety,
innocent and useful labour improves our mental and corporeal functions.
How pitiable are they, whom necessity drags to the banquet of
ostentation, who secretly yawn through the lengthened vigil of unenjoyed
dissipation; who rise from feverish slumbers to tasteless delights; who
feel that their present course of life is a captivity; and yet look on
that which would bring them freedom as disgrace. Unmolested by
creditors, unvexed by the reproachful glances of those who would
attribute their undoing to our extravagance, with no open enemies to
insult us, no secret sorrows to afflict us, our desires subdued rather
than gratified, our domestic union perfect, our minds informed, and our
souls expatiating in a still happier world, O my Allan, let us forget
the past, and call our lot rare felicity. These mountains, which shut
from your vie