an to leave us here in rags and beggary, while you are
amusing yourself in London?" replied Mrs Rainscourt, with asperity.
"With your altered circumstances, you will have no want of society,
either male or _female_," continued the lady, with an emphasis upon the
last word--"and a wife will probably be an encumbrance."

"Certainly not such a kind and affectionate one as you have proved, my
dear," replied the gentleman, sarcastically; "nevertheless I must
decline the pleasure of your company till I have time to look about me a
little."

"Perhaps, Mr Rainscourt, now that you will be able to afford it, you
will prefer a separate establishment? If so, I am willing to accede to
any proposition you may be inclined to make."

"That's a very sensible remark of yours, my dear, and shall receive due
consideration."

"The sooner the better, sir," replied the piqued lady, as Mr Rainscourt
quitted the room.

"My dear child," said Mrs Rainscourt to her daughter, "you see how
cruelly your father treats me. He is a bad man, and you must never pay
attention to what he says."

"Papa told me just the same of you, mamma," replied the girl, "yesterday
morning, when you were walking in the garden."

"Did he! The wretch, to set my own child against me!" cried Mrs
Rainscourt, who had just been guilty of the very same offence which had
raised her choler against her husband.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

The Queen of night, whose vast command
Rules all the sea, and half the land;
And over moist and crazy brains,
In high spring-tides at midnight reigns.
HUDIBRAS.

Among the millions who, on the hallowed and appointed day, lay aside
their worldly occupations to bow the knee to the Giver of all good,
directing their orisons and their thoughts to one mercy-beaming power,
like so many rays of light concentrated into one focus, I know no class
of people in whose breasts the feeling of religion is more deeply
implanted than the occupants of that glorious specimen of daring
ingenuity--a man-of-war. It is through his works that the Almighty is
most sincerely reverenced, through them that his infinite power is with
deepest humility acknowledged. The most forcible arguments, the most
pathetic eloquence from the pulpit, will not affect so powerfully the
mind of man, as the investigation of a blade of grass, or the mechanism
of the almost imperceptible insect. If, then, such is the effect upon
mankind in general, how strong must be