was but the mirror of an all-gentle and cloudless heaven. Her head
half-declined upon the breast of her young lover, she caught the beating
of his heart, and in it heard all the sounds of what was now become to her
the world.

And still and solitary deepened around them the mystic and lovely night.
How divine was that sense and consciousness of solitude! how, as it
thrilled within them, they clung closer to each other! Theirs as yet was
that blissful and unsated time when the touch of their hands, clasped
together, was in itself a happiness of emotion too deep for words. And
ever, as his eyes sought hers, the tears which the sensitiveness of her
frame, in the very luxury of her overflowing heart, called forth,
glittered in the tranquil stars a moment and were kissed away. "Do not
look up to heaven, my love," whispered Godolphin, "lest thou shouldst
think of any world but this!"

Poor Lucilla! will any one who idly glances over this page sympathise one
moment with the springs of thy brief joys and thy bitter sorrow? The page
on which, in stamping a record of thee, I would fain retain thy memory
from oblivion; that page is an emblem of thyself;--a short existence;
confounded with the herd to which it has no resemblance, and then, amidst
the rush and tumult of the world, forgotten and cast away for ever!

CHAPTER XXXIII.

RETURN TO LADY ERPINGHAM.--LADY ERPINGHAM FALLS ILL.--LORD ERPINGHAM
RESOLVES TO GO ABROAD.--PLUTARCH UPON MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.--PARTY AT
ERPINGHAM HOUSE.--SAVILLE ON SOCIETY AND THE TASTE FOR THE LITTLE.--DAVID
MANDEVILLE.--WOMEN, THEIR INFLUENCE AND EDUCATION.--THE NECESSITY OF AN
OBJECT.--RELIGION.