not stingy.

In vain shall we endeavor, with our small insight into the bosoms of men
and women, to divide them into the good and the bad. There are mediocre
intellects; there are mediocre morals. This woman was always more
inclined to good than evil, yet at times temptation conquered. She was
virtuous till she succumbed to a seducer whom she loved. Under his
control she deceived Walter Clifford, and attempted an act of downright
villainy; that control removed, she returned to virtuous and industrious
habits. After many years, solitude, weariness, and a gloomy future
unhinged her conscience again: comfort and affection offered themselves,
and she committed bigamy. Deserted by Braham, and once more fascinated by
the only man she had ever greatly loved, she joined him in an abominable
fraud, broke down in the middle of it by a sudden impulse of conscience,
and soon after settled down into a faithful nurse. She is now a faithful
wife, a tender mother, a kind mistress, and nearly everything that is
good in a medium way; and so, in all human probability, will pass the
remainder of her days, which, as she is healthy, and sober in eating and
drinking, will perhaps be the longer period of her little life.

Well may we all pray against great temptations; only choice spirits
resist them, except when they are great temptations to somebody else, and
somehow not to the person tempted.

It has lately been objected to the writers of fiction--especially to
those few who are dramatists as well as novelists--that they neglect
what Shakespeare calls "the middle of humanity," and deal in eccentric
characters above or below the people one really meets. Let those who
are serious in this objection enjoy moral mediocrity in the person of
Lucy Monckton.

For our part we will never place Fiction, which was the parent of
History, below its child. Our hearts are with those superior men and
women who, whether in History or Fiction, make life beautiful, and
raise the standard of Humanity. Such characters exist even in this
plain tale, and it is these alone, and our kindly readers, we take
leave of with regret.

THE END.

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