nts hiss in the pathless desert, and danger
lurks in the unexplored wiles. Maria found herself more indulgent as she
was happier, and discovered virtues, in characters she had before
disregarded, while chasing the phantoms of elegance and excellence, which
sported in the meteors that exhale in the marshes of misfortune. The
heart is often shut by romance against social pleasure; and, fostering a
sickly sensibility, grows callous to the soft touches of humanity.

To part with Darnford was indeed cruel.--It was to feel most painfully
alone; but she rejoiced to think, that she should spare him the care and
perplexity of the suit, and meet him again, all his own. Marriage, as at
present constituted, she considered as leading to immorality--yet, as the
odium of society impedes usefulness, she wished to avow her affection to
Darnford, by becoming his wife according to established rules; not to be
confounded with women who act from very different motives, though her
conduct would be just the same without the ceremony as with it, and her
expectations from him not less firm. The being summoned to defend herself
from a charge which she was determined to plead guilty to, was still
galling, as it roused bitter reflections on the situation of women in
society.

FOOTNOTES:

[138-A] The name in the manuscript is by mistake written Caesar.

EDITOR.

CHAP. XVII.

SUCH was her state of mind when the dogs of law were let loose on her.
Maria took the task of conducting Darnford's defence upon herself. She
instructed his counsel to plead guilty to the charge of adultery; but to
deny that of seduction.

The counsel for the plaintiff opened the cause, by observing, "that his
client had ever been an indulgent husband, and had borne with several
defects of temper, while he had nothing criminal to lay to the charge of
his wife. But that she left his house without assigning any cause. He
could not assert that she was then acquainted with the defendant; yet,
when he was once endeavouring to bring her back to her home, this man
put the peace-officers to flight, and took her he knew not whither. After
the birth of her child, her conduct was so strange, and a melancholy
malady having afflicted one of the family, which delicacy forbade the
dwelling on, it was necessary to confine her. By some means the defendant
enabled her to make her escape, and they had lived together, in despite
of all sense of order and decorum. The adultery was a