her--but I will not think about that to-day.--How yellow the glow is
upon those woods! What heavenly hues hang about the world we live in!
but how strange is the lot of some in it! One would wonder why, when
all are so plainly made to feel and act together, there should be any
one completely solitary. There must be a reason: I would fain know it;
but I can wait till we may know all."

Such were some of Maria Young's natural and unchecked thoughts. There
was not much of common holiday spirit in them: but to Maria, liberty and
peace were holiday, and her mind was not otherwise than peaceful. She
was serious, but not sad. Any one who could at the moment have seen her
face, would have pronounced her cheerful at heart; and so she was. She
had been so long and so far banished from ordinary happiness, that her
own quiet speculations were material enough for cheerfulness. The
subject on which she would not think to-day, was the possibility of one
of the sisters attaching Mr Enderby. Maria Young had not always been
solitary, and lame, and poor. Her father had not been very long dead;
and while he lived, no one supposed that his only child would be poor.
Her youth passed gaily, and her adversity came suddenly. Her father was
wont to drive her out in his gig, almost every summer day. One evening,
the horse took fright, and upset the gig on a heap of stones by the
road-side. Mr Young was taken up dead, and Maria was lamed for life.
She had always known the Enderbys very well; and there had been some
gossip among their mutual acquaintance, about the probability that
Philip would prove to be Maria's lover, when he should be old enough to
think of marrying. It never went further than this,--except in Maria's
own heart. She had, indeed, hoped--even supposed--that in Philip's mind
the affair had at least been entertained thus far. She could never
settle to her own satisfaction whether she had been weak and mistaken,
or whether she had really been in any degree wronged. There had been
words, there had been looks,--but words and looks are so easily
misinterpreted! The probability was that she had no one to blame but
herself--if fault there was. Perhaps there was no fault anywhere: but
there was misery, intense and long. During her illness, no tidings came
of Philip. He was in another part of the country when the accident
happened; and it was not till long after it had been made known that Mr
Young had died insolvent,--