gradually partook of the cool worldly spirit which had seized upon the
disposition of her husband, Though cultivating but a small farm, which
they held at a high rent, yet, by the dint of frugality and incessant
diligence, they were able to add a little each year to the small stock
of money which they had contrived to put together. Still would the
unhappy recollection that they were childless steal painfully and
heavily over them; the wife would sometimes murmur, and the husband
reprove her, but in a tone so cool and indifferent that she could not
avoid concluding that his own want of resignation, though not expressed,
was at heart equal to her own. Each also became somewhat religious,
and both remarkable for a punctual attendance upon the rites of their
church, and that in proportion as the love of temporal things overcame
them. In this manner they lived upwards of thirteen years, when Mrs.
Donovan declared herself to be in that situation which in due time
rendered the services of Mary Moan necessary.

From the moment this intimation was! given, and its truth confirmed, a
faint light, not greater than the dim and trembling lustre of a single
star, broke in upon the darkened affections and worldly spirit
of Fardorougha Donovan. Had the announcement taken place within a
reasonable period after his marriage, before he had become sick of
disappointment, or had surrendered his heart from absolute despair to an
incipient spirit of avarice, it would no doubt have been hailed with all
the eager delight of unblighted hope and vivid affection; but now a
new and subtle habit had been superinduced, after the last cherished
expectation of the heart had departed; a spirit of foresight and severe
calculation descended on him, and had so nearly saturated his whole
being, that he could not for some time actually determine whether the
knowledge of his wife's situation was more agreeable to his affection,
or repugnant to the parsimonious disposition which had quickened his