departure was a signal for a change in the house, the gardens, the arbour;
and when she was tired with these occupations, she was not forbidden at
least to write to him and receive his letters. Daily intoxication! and
men's words are so much kinder when written, than they are when uttered!
Fortunately for Lucilla, her early habits, and her strange qualities of
mind, rendered her independent of companionship, and fond of solitude.

Often Godolphin, who could not conceive how persons without education
could entertain themselves, taking pity on her loneliness and seclusion,
would say,

"But how, Lucilla, have you passed this long day that I have spent away
from you?--among the woods or on the lake?"

And Lucilla, delighted to recount to him the history of her hours, would
go over each incident, and body forth every thought that had occurred to
her, with a grave and serious minuteness that evinced her capabilities of
dispensing with the world.

In this manner they passed somewhat more than two years: and in spite of
the human alloy, it was perhaps the happiest period of Godolphin's life,
and the one that the least disappointed his too exacting imagination.
Lucilla had had one daughter, but she died a few weeks after birth. She
wept over the perished flower, but was not inconsolable; for, before its
loss, she had taught herself to think no affliction could be irremediable
that did not happen to Godolphin. Perhaps Godolphin was the more grieved
of the two; men of his character are fond of the occupation of watching
the growth of minds; they put in practice their chimeras of education.
Happy child, to have escaped an experiment!