Temple heard the news with emotion: he had lost his father's favour
by avowing his passion for Lucy, and he saw now there was no hope of
regaining it: "but he shall not make me miserable," said he. "Lucy and I
have no ambitious notions: we can live on three hundred a year for
some little time, till the mortgage is paid off, and then we shall have
sufficient not only for the comforts but many of the little elegancies
of life. We will purchase a little cottage, my Lucy," said he, "and
thither with your reverend father we will retire; we will forget there
are such things as splendor, profusion, and dissipation: we will have
some cows, and you shall be queen of the dairy; in a morning, while I
look after my garden, you shall take a basket on your arm, and sally
forth to feed your poultry; and as they flutter round you in token of
humble gratitude, your father shall smoke his pipe in a woodbine alcove,
and viewing the serenity of your countenance, feel such real pleasure
dilate his own heart, as shall make him forget he had ever been
unhappy."

Lucy smiled; and Temple saw it was a smile of approbation. He sought
and found a cottage suited to his taste; thither, attended by Love and
Hymen, the happy trio retired; where, during many years of uninterrupted
felicity, they cast not a wish beyond the little boundaries of their own
tenement. Plenty, and her handmaid, Prudence, presided at their board,
Hospitality stood at their gate, Peace smiled on each face, Content
reigned in each heart, and Love and Health strewed roses on their
pillows.

Such were the parents of Charlotte Temple, who was the only pledge of
their mutual love, and who, at the earnest entreaty of a particular
friend, was permitted to finish the education her mother had begun,
at Madame Du Pont's school, where we first introduced her to the