irksome to
him, he watched, with jealousy, even the most trifling attentions that
were offered her. He, who possessed such a heart, should never have
doubted its truth, or wounded her affection by distrusting its fervor
and sincerity. He had led her into the fatal vortex, and one word from
him could have dissolved the spell; the slightest expression of his
wishes, would, at any moment, have drawn her from pleasures of which she
already wearied; and, amid the sweet tranquillity of nature, they might
have regained that happiness, which had withered in the ungenial
atmosphere of artificial life. But he was too proud to acknowledge the
weakness he indulged; and when she besought him, even with tears, to
explain the cause of his altered conduct, he answered her evasively, or
repulsed her with a coldness, which she felt more keenly than the
bitterest reproaches. Confidence, the strongest link of affection, was
broken, and the golden chain trembled with the shock.

"Nothing is more galling to an ingenuous mind, than a consciousness,
that the actions and feelings are misconstrued by those to whom the
heart has been opened with that perfect trust and unreserve, which ought
to place them beyond the shadow of suspicion. Your mother deeply felt
the injustice of those doubts; and perhaps, a little natural resentment
mingled with and augmented the pain, which rankled in her inmost soul.
But, satisfied of her innate rectitude, and of that true and constant
love, which even unkindness could not weaken, she left her innocence to
vindicate itself, and made no farther attempt to penetrate the reserve
which her husband had assumed, and which opposed a fatal barrier to
returning harmony. Experience in the world, or a thorough knowledge of
your father's peculiar disposition, might have suggested a different,
and, perhaps, a more successful course. But she judged and acted from
the impulse of a sensitive and ardent mind, which had freely bestowed
the whole treasure of its warm and generous affections, and could ill
brook a return of such unmerited coldness and distrust. Her conduct
towards him was marked by the most unvarying sweetness, and a studious
deference to his wishes; they, however, seldom met, but in a crowd; for
she sought society with an eagerness, which seemed the result of choice,
while it was, in reality, a vain attempt to relieve the restlessness and
melancholy that oppressed her. In public, her spirits were supported by
an art