not by design, but by the twist of a mind habitually wrong--distorted
the facts, I will state what appears to me the real case, as between the
parties so unhappily opposed. Reader, pardon me if the recital be
tedious; and if thou thinkest that I bear not hard enough on the erring
hero of the story, remember that he who recites, judges as Austin's son
must judge of Roland's.




CHAPTER III.

Vivian.

At The Entrance of Life Sits--The Mother.

It was during the war in Spain that a severe wound, and the fever which
ensued, detained Roland at the house of a Spanish widow. His hostess
had once been rich; but her fortune had been ruined in the general
calamities of the country. She had an only daughter, who assisted to
nurse and tend the wounded Englishman; and when the time approached for
Roland's departure, the frank grief of the young Ramouna betrayed the
impression that the guest had made upon her affections. Much of
gratitude, and something, it might be, of an exquisite sense of honor,
aided, in Roland's breast, the charm naturally produced by the beauty of
his young nurse, and the knightly compassion he felt for her ruined
fortunes and desolate condition.

In one of those hasty impulses common to a generous nature--and which
too often fatally vindicate the rank of Prudence amidst the tutelary