iness seemed to her like destiny--a call that, however odious,
we cannot disobey. At first, indeed, she was disconsolate at the absence
only of two days; but when she saw how eagerly her lover returned to
her, with what a fresh charm he listened to her voice or her song, she
began to confess that even in the evil might be good.

By degrees he accustomed her to longer intervals; and Lucilla relieved
the dreariness of the time by the thousand little plans and surprises
with which women delight in receiving the beloved wanderer after
absence. His departure was a signal for a change in the house, the
gardens, the arbour; and when she was tired with these occupations,
she was not forbidden at least to write to him and receive his letters.
Daily intoxication! and men's words are so much kinder when written,
than they are when uttered! Fortunately for Lucilla, her early
habits, and her strange qualities of mind, rendered her independent of
companionship, and fond of solitude.

Often Godolphin, who could not conceive how persons without education
could entertain themselves, taking pity on her loneliness and seclusion,
would say,

"But how, Lucilla, have you passed this long day that I have spent away
from you?--among the woods or on the lake?"

And Lucilla, delighted to recount to him the history of her hours, would
go over each incident, and body forth every thought that had occurred to
her, with a grave and serious minuteness that evinced her capabilities
of dispensing with the world.

In this manner they passed somewhat more than two years: and in spite of
the human alloy, it was perhaps the happiest period of Godolphin's life,
and the one that the least disappointed his too exacting imagination.
Lucilla had had one daughter, but she died a few weeks after birth. She
wept over the perished flower, but was not inconsolable; for, before
its loss, she had taught herself to think no affliction could be
irremediable that did not happen to Godolphin. Perhaps Godolphin was the
more grieved of the two; men of his character are fond of the occupation
of watching the growth of minds; they put in practice their chimeras of
education. Happy child, to have escaped an experiment!

It was the eve before one of Godolphin's periodical excursions, and it
was Rome that he proposed to visit; Godolphin had lingered about the
lake until the sun had set; and Lucilla, grown impatient, went forth to
seek him. The day had been sultry, and now a