A few months after, my mind grew calmer; and, if a treacherous
imagination, if feelings many accidents revived, sometimes plunged me
into melancholy, I often repeated with steady conviction, that virtue was
not an empty name, and that, in following the dictates of duty, I had not
bidden adieu to content.

In the course of a few years, the dear object of my fondest affection,
said farewel, in dying accents. Thus left alone, my grief became dear;
and I did not feel solitary, because I thought I might, without a crime,
indulge a passion, that grew more ardent than ever when my imagination
only presented him to my view, and restored my former activity of soul
which the late calm had rendered torpid. I seemed to find myself again,
to find the eccentric warmth that gave me identity of character. Reason
had governed my conduct, but could not change my nature; this voluptuous
sorrow was superior to every gratification of sense, and death more
firmly united our hearts.

Alive to every human affection, I smoothed my mothers passage to
eternity, and so often gave my husband sincere proofs of affection, he
never supposed that I was actuated by a more fervent attachment. My
melancholy, my uneven spirits, he attributed to my extreme sensibility,
and loved me the better for possessing qualities he could not
comprehend.

At the close of a summer's day, some years after, I wandered with
careless steps over a pathless common; various anxieties had rendered the
hours which the sun had enlightened heavy; sober evening came on; I
wished to still "my mind, and woo lone quiet in her silent walk." The
scene accorded with my feelings; it was wild and grand; and the spreading
twilight had almost confounded the distant sea with the barren, blue
hills that melted from my sight. I sat down on a rising ground; the rays
of the departing sun illumined the horizon, but so indistinctly, that I
anticipated their total extinction. The death of Nature led me to a still
more interesting subject, that came home to my bosom, the death of him I
loved. A village-bell was tolling; I listened, and thought of the moment
when I heard his interrupted breath, and felt the agonizing fear, that
the same sound would never more reach my ears, and that the intelligence
glanced from my eyes, would no more be felt. The spoiler had seized his
prey; the sun was fled, what was this world to me! I wandered to another,
where death and darkness could not enter; I pursued th