wever delightful she
had found it to entertain in times past, were now in direct variance with
her duty. She knew that a weak indulgence of such passions would tend to
draw her mind from, and disqualify her to discharge, those various calls
on her time and her exertions, which could alone enable her to assist
others, or effect in her own person the great purposes of her creation. It
was never lost sight of by Emily Moseley, that her existence here was
preparatory to an immensely more important state hereafter. She was
consequently in charity with all mankind; and if grown a little more
distrustful of the intentions of her fellow-creatures, it was a mistrust
bottomed in a clear view of the frailties of our nature; and
self-examination was amongst the not unfrequent speculations she made on
this hasty marriage of her former lover.

Mrs. Wilson saw all this, and was soon made acquainted by her niece in
terms, with her views of her own condition; and although she had to, and
did, deeply regret, that all her caution had not been able to guard
against deception, where it was most important for her to guide aright,
yet she was cheered with the reflection that her previous care, with the
blessings of Providence, had admirably fitted her charge to combat and
overcome the consequences of their mistaken confidence.

The gloom which this little paragraph excited, extended to every
individual in the family; for all had placed Denbigh by the side of John,
in their affections, ever since his weighty services to Emily.

A letter from John announcing his intention of meeting them at Bath, as
well as his new relation with Grace, relieved in some measure this general
depression of spirit. Mr. Benfield alone found no consolation in the
approaching nuptials. John he regarded as his nephew, and Grace he thought
a very good sort of young woman; but neither of them were beings of the
same genus with Emily and Denbigh.

"Peter," said he one day, after they had both been expending their
ingenuity in vain efforts to discover the cause of this so-much-desired
marriage's being so unexpectedly frustrated, "have I not often told you,
that fate governed these things, in order that men might be humble in this
life? Now, Peter, had the Lady Juliana wedded with a mind congenial to her
own, she might have been mistress of Benfield Lodge to this very hour."

"Yes, your honor--but there's Miss Emmy's legacy."

And Peter withdrew, thinking what would ha