drooping of this lovely flower. I suppose their having been educated
together, so much like brother and sister, has been the reason there was
so much indifference to each other's merits. You have been an exception on
account of your long absences, Miles, and you must look to those absences
for the consolation and relief you will doubtless require. Alas! alas!
that I could not now fold Grace to my heart, as a daughter and a bride,
instead of standing over her grave! Nothing but Rupert's diffidence of his
own claims, during our days of poverty, could have prevented him from
submitting himself to so much loveliness and virtue. I acquit the ad of
insensibility; for nothing but the sense of poverty and the pride of a
poor gentleman, added perhaps to the brotherly regard he has always felt
for Grace, could have kept him from seeking her hand. Grace, properly
enough, would have requited his affection."

Such is a specimen of the delusion under which we live, daily. Here was my
sister dying of blighted affections, under my own roof; and the upright,
conscientious father of the wretch who had produced this withering evil,
utterly unconscious of the wrong that had been done; still regarding his
son with the partiality and indulgence of a fond parent. To me, it seemed
incredible at the time, that unsuspecting integrity could carry its
simplicity so far; but I have since lived long enough to know that
mistakes like these are constantly occurring around us; effects being
hourly attributed to causes with which they have no connection; and causes
being followed down to effects, that are as imaginary as human sagacity is
faulty. As for myself, I can safely say, that in scarce a circumstance of
my life, that has brought me the least under the cognizance of the public,
have I ever been judged justly. In various instances have I been praised
for acts that were either totally without any merit, or, at least, the
particular merit imputed to them; while I have been even persecuted for
deeds that deserved praise. An instance or two of the latter of these