so that she was very generally beloved by characters
of very different descriptions; still, she was too much under the
influence of an ardent imagination to adhere to common rules.

There are mistakes of conduct which at five-and-twenty prove the strength
of the mind, that, ten or fifteen years after, would demonstrate its
weakness, its incapacity to acquire a sane judgment. The youths who are
satisfied with the ordinary pleasures of life, and do not sigh after
ideal phantoms of love and friendship, will never arrive at great
maturity of understanding; but if these reveries are cherished, as is too
frequently the case with women, when experience ought to have taught
them in what human happiness consists, they become as useless as they are
wretched. Besides, their pains and pleasures are so dependent on outward
circumstances, on the objects of their affections, that they seldom act
from the impulse of a nerved mind, able to choose its own pursuit.

Having had to struggle incessantly with the vices of mankind, Maria's
imagination found repose in pourtraying the possible virtues the world
might contain. Pygmalion formed an ivory maid, and longed for an
informing soul. She, on the contrary, combined all the qualities of a
hero's mind, and fate presented a statue in which she might enshrine
them.

We mean not to trace the progress of this passion, or recount how often
Darnford and Maria were obliged to part in the midst of an interesting
conversation. Jemima ever watched on the tip-toe of fear, and frequently
separated them on a false alarm, when they would have given worlds to
remain a little longer together.

A magic lamp now seemed to be suspended in Maria's prison, and fairy
landscapes flitted round the gloomy walls, late so blank. Rushing from
the depth of despair, on the seraph wing of hope, she found herself
happy.--She was beloved, and every emotion was rapturous.

To Darnford she had not shown a decided affection; the fear of outrunning
his, a sure proof of love, made her often assume a coldness and
indifference foreign from her character; and, even when giving way to the
playful emotions of a heart just loosened from the frozen bond of grief,
there was a delicacy in her manner of expressing her sensibility, which
made him doubt whether it was the effect of love.

One evening, when Jemima left them, to listen to the sound of a distant
footstep, which seemed cautiously to approach, he seized Maria's hand--it
w