Page images
PDF
EPUB

knowledge, as may make us useful members of society, and faithful servants of thy dear Son, in whatsoever situations it may please thee, O Lord, to establish us. “And now to God the Father," &c.

CHAPTER VI.

SECOND CONVERSATION ON THE POMPS AND VANITIES OF THIS WICKED WORLD.

THE young people being met together once more at the manor-house, the lady of the manor thus addressed them :

66

My dear young friends," she said, "since you did not seem to feel the case of Maria, as being a married woman, so exactly adapted to your own present situations as I could wish, I shall this day entertain you with a story upon the same subject, namely, the renunciation of the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, which, as it refers to a very young and unmarried person, will I trust be found more applicable to your own cases.

"It may appear to you, from the history of Maria, that her self-denial was the less praiseworthy because it was necessary to the well-being of her family. I am now going to bring before you an instance in which economy and self-denial were practised, I will not say from higher motives than those of Maria, but from motives in which self-interest could have no part, and in a sphere of life in which self-denial seldom forms a feature of the character." The lady of the manor then unfolded her manuscript, and read as follows.

THE ECONOMY OF CHARITY.

Lady Harriet Mowbray, a daughter of the Earl of G——, was left a widow, at the age of thirty-five, with two sons and four daughters. Her circumstances were good but in order to increase the fortunes of her vounger children, though they were not unhandsomely

provided for by their father, she gave up her town-house immediately after the death of her husband, and retired to a beautiful country-house, which was in the possession of the family, in one of the most picturesque counties of England. In this retirement, with her six children, their governess, and tutor, she passed her time in such a way as a prudent worldly character might be expected to do in paying some attention to the improvement of her children, in cultivating an acquaintance with a few reputable families in the neighbourhood, in performing occasional acts of charity, and in making filagree screens and boxes of card-board.

The names of Lady Harriet's daughters were, Jane, Celia, Dorothea, and Fanny; and Miss Hartley was the governess appointed to take the charge of these young ladies. Her sons were Robert and Gerard. In addition to this family, there was a niece of Lady Harriet, a young lady who, having lost her parents, was received into her aunt's family to be educated with her cousins. She was one year younger than Dorothea, the third daughter of Lady Harriet, and bore so strong a family resemblance to her young relations, that she commonly passed among them as a fifth sister. The name of this young lady was Margarita; and although deprived of her parents, she was in other respects well provided for, having a very sufficient property settled upon her.

Having now introduced my readers to some of the personages who are to make the principal figures in my history, I proceed to describe their modes of life and usual habits.

Lady Harriet rose late, and those who visited her in a morning generally found her sitting in her drawing-room in an elegant dishabille, having a table before her scattered over with specimens of gilt and coloured papers, half-finished drawings, the latest pamphlets and novels, pencils, pens, card-paper, and crayons: all of which gave a certain air of je ne scai quoi to the apartment, and afforded occasion to many persons to say, "What an accomplished woman is Lady Harriet Mowbray !"

In summer-time the windows of this drawing-room were always thrown up, their upper compartments being shaded by Venetian blinds: and the view from these windows was so remarkably beautiful as to give a peculiar charm

to the apartment; while the odour of many fragrant flowers, placed in vases in different parts of the room, and the warbling of various birds on the trees without, were calculated to furnish as delightful a feast to some of the other senses, as those which were here provided for the gratification of the eye. The objects seen from the window were, a lawn, which sloped down to a large and noble piece of water, encircled by trees, many of which were exotic; and beyond these, certain woody knolls, intersected by small valleys, marked to the eye by their deeper shade. A blue upland in the remotest distance finished this exquisite picture.

A very great degree of sense, judgment, wit, beauty, and sprightliness, was certainly not necessary to set off a lady of high rank, elegantly dressed, and desiring to make herself agreeable in a situation like this; especially as most of her visitors were common characters, and as Lady Harriet could, often did, speak very eloquently on the subject of maternal tenderness, &c. &c. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, if she was held forth in the neighbourhood as the very prototype of La bonne mere de Madame Genlis, although it often happened, that she did not see her children during more than an hour in the morning, and in an evening only for that interval when they were permitted to be present in the dining-room and drawing-room; leaving them in the mean time to an inexperienced governess, who, although mistress of some accomplishments, had not the smallest idea of forming the mind, directing the principles, or even making the best of her pupils' time in an ordinary way. With re

spect to religion, Miss Hartley knew nothing but its most common forms; and as to neatness, order, and economy, this director of youth had as little notion of these good qualities as of algebra or conic sections. With such a head, we may imagine that the school-room and sleepingapartments belonging to these young ladies exhibited no very striking specimens of accurate arrangement: but as the young people were profusely supplied with books, paper, materials for drawing, toys, and trinkets, every place which they occupied was scattered with these articles, many of them in a torn and dilapidated state, and not a few utterly destroyed.

If we consider that what children are with respect to

their books and toys, they will probably hereafter become with regard to their more important possessions, and that the same unprincipled carelessness which renders them incapable of arranging a cabinet, or taking care of a drawing-box, will hereafter disqualify them for managing an estate or ordering a family-in this view of the case, instead of making vain and foolish excuses for their carelessness, we ought to set ourselves strenuously to correct it, and to subdue the disposition from which it proceeds. It is impossible indeed for the most pious and careful parent to change the heart of a young person, or to make him a lover of God who by nature is a child of wrath: this must be the work of a more powerful hand than that of man. But decent, orderly, and economical habits may be induced by the parent or teacher; and surely, when grace is given, these will smooth the way to the acquirement of those humble, Christian modes of conduct, and that scriptural self-denial, without which the Christian character displays a degree of inconsistency discernible to every eye. But leaving these reflections, I shall now proceed to that period of my history when the eldest daughter of Lady Harriet had attained her thirteenth year, and Fanny, the youngest child of the family, her ninth.

At this period these young people, when dressed for company and in their best mood, presented so pretty a family group, that Lady Harriet insisted upon having them all exhibited in a large painting, to be placed over the chimney-piece of the great dining-room and as the artist executed his work with some taste, Lady Harriet was not a little pleased with the performance; especially as she herself appeared, in a conspicuous part of the picture, to much advantage in her favourite charaeter of La bonne mere. These children were all extremely fair, had beautiful light hair, together with that air of ease and superior breeding which is rarely discoverable among persons in low life; because young people being extremely imitative, how carefully soever they may be educated in inferior society, they will unavoidably copy the ordinary manners of those with whom they converse. But inasmuch as coarse manners are not a necessary accompaniment of humble life, we may hope that, as religious feeling makes its way in society, a better style

[blocks in formation]
« EelmineJätka »