My dearest interval of peace occurred, when, released from the obligation

of associating with the crowd, I could repose in the dear home where my

children lived. Children I say, for the tenderest emotions of paternity

bound me to Clara. She was now fourteen; sorrow, and deep insight into the

scenes around her, calmed the restless spirit of girlhood; while the

remembrance of her father whom she idolized, and respect for me and Adrian,

implanted an high sense of duty in her young heart. Though serious she was

not sad; the eager desire that makes us all, when young, plume our wings,

and stretch our necks, that we may more swiftly alight tiptoe on the height

of maturity, was subdued in her by early experience. All that she could

spare of overflowing love from her parents' memory, and attention to her

living relatives, was spent upon religion. This was the hidden law of her

heart, which she concealed with childish reserve, and cherished the more

because it was secret. What faith so entire, what charity so pure, what

hope so fervent, as that of early youth? and she, all love, all tenderness

and trust, who from infancy had been tossed on the wide sea of passion and

misfortune, saw the finger of apparent divinity in all, and her best hope

was to make herself acceptable to the power she worshipped. Evelyn was only

five years old; his joyous heart was incapable of sorrow, and he enlivened

our house with the innocent mirth incident to his years.

The aged Countess of Windsor had fallen from her dream of power, rank and

grandeur; she had been suddenly seized with the conviction, that love was

the only good of life, virtue the only ennobling distinction and enriching

wealth. Such a lesson had been taught her by the dead lips of her neglected

505

The Last Man