rom a heavy burthen, which had oppressed him for years; or as
if fetters, which had been long riveted, had been knocked off; and he
congratulated himself upon his regained liberty. Plunging at once into
the depths of vice and dissipation, he sought pleasure after pleasure,
variety upon variety,--all that life could offer, or money purchase; and
for a time thought himself happy. But there are drawbacks which cannot
be surmounted; and he who wholly associates with the vicious, must, more
than any other, be exposed to the effects of depravity. He found man
more than ever treacherous and ungrateful--woman more than ever
deceiving--indulgence, cloying--debauchery, enervating and his
constitution and his spirits exhausted by excess. Satiated with
everything, disgusted with everybody, he sought for "something new."

For more than two years he had not seen, and had hardly bestowed a
thought upon his wife and daughter, who still continued to reside at the
mansion at ---. Not knowing what to do with himself, it occurred to him
that the country air might recruit his health; and he felt a degree of
interest, if not for his wife, at least for his daughter. He
determined, therefore, to pay them a visit. The horses were ordered;
and, to the astonishment of Mrs Rainscourt, to whom he had given no
intimation of his whim, and who looked upon a visit from her husband, in
her retirement, as a visionary idea, Rainscourt made his appearance,
just as she was about to sit down to dinner, in company with the
McElvinas, and the vicar, who had become one of her most intimate
associates.

If Rainscourt was pleased with the improvement of Emily, who was now
more than fourteen years old, how much more was he astonished at the
appearance of his wife, who, to his eyes, seemed even handsomer, if
possible, than on the day when he had led her to the altar. For more
than two years, content, if not perfect happiness, had been Mrs
Rainscourt's lot. She had recovered her health, her bloom, and her
spirits, and not having had any source of irritation, her serenity of
temper had been regained; and Mrs Rainscourt, to whose extreme beauty,
from assuetude, he had before been blind, now appeared to him, after so
long an absence, quite a different person from the one whom he had
quitted with such indifference; and as he surveyed her, he seemed to
feel that freshness of delight unknown to vitiated minds, except when
successful in their search after "someth