an offering to Miss Portman. He is the most grateful, affectionate
creature I ever saw."

"But why, mamma," said Charles Percival, "is Mr. Vincent gone away? I am
sorry he is gone; I hope he will soon come back. In the mean time, I must
run and water my carnations."

"His sorrow for his friend Mr. Vincent's departure does not seem to affect
his spirits much," said Lady Anne. "People who expect sentiment from
children of six years old will be disappointed, and will probably teach
them affectation. Surely it is much better to let their natural affections
have time to expand. If we tear the rosebud open we spoil the flower."
Belinda smiled at this parable of the rosebud, which, she said, might be
applied to men and women, as well as to children.

"And yet, upon reflection," said Lady Anne, "the heart has nothing in
common with a rosebud. Nonsensical allusions pass off very prettily in
conversation. I mean, when we converse with partial friends: but we should
reason ill, and conduct ourselves worse, if we were to trust implicitly to
poetical analogies. Our affections," continued Lady Anne, "arise from
circumstances totally independent of our will."

"That is the very thing I meant to say," interrupted Belinda, eagerly.

"They are excited by the agreeable or useful qualities that we discover in
things or in persons."

"Undoubtedly," said Belinda.

"Or by those which our fancies discover," said Lady Anne.