"Not eloped?" cried she eagerly.

Mr. Temple was silent.

"You cannot contradict it," said she. "I see my fate in those tearful
eyes. Oh Charlotte! Charlotte! how ill have you requited our tenderness!
But, Father of Mercies," continued she, sinking on her knees, and
raising her streaming eyes and clasped hands to heaven, "this once
vouchsafe to hear a fond, a distracted mother's prayer. Oh let thy
bounteous Providence watch over and protect the dear thoughtless girl,
save her from the miseries which I fear will be her portion, and oh!
of thine infinite mercy, make her not a mother, lest she should one day
feel what I now suffer."

The last words faultered on her tongue, and she fell fainting into the
arms of her husband, who had involuntarily dropped on his knees beside
her.

A mother's anguish, when disappointed in her tenderest hopes, none but
a mother can conceive. Yet, my dear young readers, I would have you read
this scene with attention, and reflect that you may yourselves one day
be mothers. Oh my friends, as you value your eternal happiness, wound
not, by thoughtless ingratitude, the peace of the mother who bore you:
remember the tenderness, the care, the unremitting anxiety with which
she has attended to all your wants and wishes from earliest infancy to
the present day; behold the mild ray of affectionate applause that beams
from her eye on the performance of your duty: listen to her reproofs
with silent attention; they proceed from a heart anxious for your future
felicity: you must love her; nature, all-powerful nature, has planted