paths of the woods; she wove garlands of flowers and ivy, or watched the

flickering of the shadows and glancing of the leaves; sometimes she sat

beside a stream, and as her thoughts paused, threw flowers or pebbles into

the waters, watching how those swam and these sank; or she would set afloat

boats formed of bark of trees or leaves, with a feather for a sail, and

intensely watch the navigation of her craft among the rapids and shallows

of the brook. Meanwhile her active fancy wove a thousand combinations; she

dreamt "of moving accidents by flood and field"--she lost herself

delightedly in these self-created wanderings, and returned with unwilling

spirit to the dull detail of common life. Poverty was the cloud that veiled

her excellencies, and all that was good in her seemed about to perish from

want of the genial dew of affection. She had not even the same advantage as

I in the recollection of her parents; she clung to me, her brother, as her

only friend, but her alliance with me completed the distaste that her

protectors felt for her; and every error was magnified by them into crimes.

If she had been bred in that sphere of life to which by inheritance the

delicate framework of her mind and person was adapted, she would have been

the object almost of adoration, for her virtues were as eminent as her

defects. All the genius that ennobled the blood of her father illustrated

hers; a generous tide flowed in her veins; artifice, envy, or meanness,

were at the antipodes of her nature; her countenance, when enlightened by

amiable feeling, might have belonged to a queen of nations; her eyes were

bright; her look fearless.

Although by our situation and dispositions we were almost equally cut off

from the usual forms of social intercourse, we formed a strong contrast to

The Last Man