fford any satisfaction to Mrs
Morgan. Nature nowhere appears graced with fewer charms. Mrs Morgan
however had vexations so superior that she paid little regard to
external circumstances, and was so fully determined to acquit herself
properly in her new sphere that she appeared pleased with every thing
around her. Hypocrisy, as she observed, was now become a virtue, and the
only one which she found it difficult to practise. They were received on
their arrival by a maiden sister of Mr Morgan's, who till then had kept
his house and he intended should still remain in it; for as through the
partiality of an aunt who had bred her up she was possessed of a large
fortune, her brother, in whom avarice was the ruling passion, was very
desirous of keeping in her favour.

Miss Susanna Morgan had lived immaculate to the age of fifty-five. The
state of virginity could not be laid to her charge as an offence against
society, for it had not been voluntary. In her youth she was rather
distinguished for sensibility. Her aunt's known riches gave the niece
the reputation of a great fortune, an attraction to which she was
indebted for many lovers, who constantly took their leave on finding the
old lady would not advance any part of the money which she designed to
bequeath her niece. Miss Susanna, extremely susceptible by nature, was
favourably disposed to all her admirers, and imagining herself
successively in love with each, lived in a course of disappointments. In
reality, the impression was made only on her vanity, and her heart
continued unengaged; but she felt such a train of mortifications very
severely, and perhaps suffered more upon the whole than if she had been
strongly impressed with one passion. In time the parsimony of her old
aunt became generally known, and the young lady then was left free from
the tender importunity of lovers, of which nothing else could probably
have deprived her; for as she never had any natural attractions, she was
not subject to a decay of charms; at near fifty-five her aunt departed
this life, and left her in possession of twenty thousand pounds, a
fortune which served to swell her pride, without increasing her
happiness.

Nature had not originally bestowed upon her much sweetness of temper,
and her frequent disappointments, each of which she termed being crossed
in love, had completely soured it. Every pretty woman was the object of
her envy, I might almost say every married woman. She despised all t