lled _the
greatest hardship of all_."

"It was, my lord, that what the poor receive to keep them from perishing
should pass under the name of _gifts_ and _bounty_. Health, strength,
and the will to earn a moderate subsistence, ought to be every man's
security from obligation."

"I think a hundred pounds a great deal of money," cried Lady Bendham;
"and I hope my lord will never give it again."

"I hope so too," cried Henry; "for if my lord would only be so good as to
speak a few words for the poor as a senator, he might possibly for the
future keep his hundred pounds, and yet they never want it."

Lord Bendham had the good nature only to smile at Henry's simplicity,
whispering to himself, "I had rather keep my--" his last word was lost in
the whisper.

CHAPTER XX.

In the country--where the sensible heart is still more susceptible of
impressions; and where the unfeeling mind, in the want of other men's wit
to invent, forms schemes for its own amusement--our youths both fell in
love: if passions, that were pursued on the most opposite principles, can
receive the same appellation. William, well versed in all the licentious
theory, thought himself in love, because he perceived a tumultuous
impulse cause his heart to beat while his fancy fixed on a certain object
whose presence agitated yet more his breast.

Henry thought himself not in love, because, while he listened to William
on the subject, he found their sensations did not in the least agree.

William owned to Henry that he loved Agnes, the daughter of a cottager in
the village, and hoped to make her his mistress.

Henry felt that his tender regard for Rebecca, the daughter of the curate
of the parish, did not inspire him even with the boldness to acquaint her
with his sentiments, much less to meditate one design that might tend to
her dishonour.

While William was cautiously planning how to meet in private, and
accomplish the seduction of the object of his passion, Henry was
endeavouring to fortify the object of _his_ choice with every virtue. He
never read a book from which he received improvement that he did not
carry it to Rebecca--never heard a circumstance which might assist
towards her moral instruction that he did not haste to tell it her; and
once when William boasted

"He knew he was beloved by Agnes;"

Henry said, with equal triumph, "he had not dared to take the means to
learn, nor had Rebecca dared to give one instance of her part