others had been more favoured. Without ❘ed at home, but I soon discovered that my

having added one mite to that peace of mind which I so much needed, I turned away from the house of prayer, where, for any edification that I had received, there might as well have been the "tables of the money changers, and them that sold doves." However, it was a gratification to my natural vanity, to be the well-dressed wife of a clergyman, and I lifted high my head, taking care to bend it occasionally with graceful condescension to the poor and needy, as I passed them by.

What a strange compound is our nature! when we do not acknowledge, nay, we hardly feel our own want of all rational, substantial, and healthy support, so long as we can wear the trappings of greatness, and the world does not look in and see the emptiness beneath. And yet, we scarcely live through a single day, sometimes not through a single hour, without pointing at the abuses, the inconsistencies, the fallibilities, the abominations of that world, from which we are at the same time concealing our faults, even the most trifling, by every possible subterfuge, and evasion; sparing neither time nor trouble, cost nor comfort, pains nor patience, to accomplish our purpose. Nor do we ever kneel down in prayer, open our bibles, or converse on holy themes, without acknowledging the justice, the purity, and the omnipotence of that power, before whose allseeing eye we dare deliberately to violate the laws which he has laid down for the merciful government of his creatures.

husband's natural and undisguised antipathy to intellectual and scientific pursuits, in short, to any thing that required the least exercise of mind, was very likely to become something like hatred of the individuals who thus possessed the power of throwing him and his small attainments into shade. Not that he was altogether ignorant or illiterate. In many of the popular works of the day he was well versed, as well as in magazines and reviews belonging to the party for which, as a staunch supporter of church and state, he professed a sort of boisterous attachment. Besides, he had an excellent memory, and could spout pompous passages from plays; often, when I wished to talk seriously, going off as Othello, upsetting the chairs and tables in the thundering rant of King Riehard, and subsiding into the majestic madness of old Lear. But this was nothing for my private gratification, (still less was it in public,) and then, as to the wonders of the animal kingdom, the varieties of climate, the study of plants, minerals, and fossils, as well as the history of the creation in general, he was so thoroughly and blindly ignorant, that he had scarcely patience to listen with common civility when such were the subjects of conversation in his presence. I had, it is true, observed this peculiarity long before I married, but then he had such a lively and humorous manner of turning the discourse, such a burlesque way of appearing, if possible, more ignorant than he really was, that the importance of his deficiencies was lost in the enterAmongst the numerous visiters who came tainment they afforded. But two people conon an early day to pay their compliments to fined to each other's company, hour after the bride, were a Mr. and Mrs. Ormorand, hour, and day after day, grow weary of their whose appearance and manners were well own jokes, and when this amusement was calculated to excite a wish to cultivate their entirely vanished from our fire side, I felt a acquaintance. Mr. Ormorand was a gentle- miserable blank which I would gladly have man without business, living genteelly upon filled up, as far as I could, by the society of a small income, which, with good manage- Mr. and Mrs. Ormorand. But this unfortument, was just sufficient to afford every ra- nate partiality of mine for my literary and tional gratification to an humble, yet philo- intellectual friends, was a constant source of sophic mind; and Mrs. Ormorand was in all strife and contention, not unfrequently things a fitting wife for such a character. - terminating in deliberate and determined In their society I found all that I most want- | inebriety on the part of my husband. They were, besides, dissenters, and all dissenters were, in his opinion, low-bred people, so that it was almost an act of rebellion whenever I sought the comfort of their social circle. Here, however, I was accustomed to meet with that enlargement of feeling which extends, in the fellowship of brotherly love, to all the community of Christ, that charity which, "hopeth all things," that philosophy which bows before religion, and brings forward the treasures of earth, ocean, and air, to magnify the glory of their Creator.

comparison was so dreadful, so heart-rending, so utterly devoid of all consolation. I had no pursuits; for, galled and fretted as I was, and bound up for life with a character so uncongenial, the mind loses the energy to pursue any thing, and stagnates in despair. There was but one hope for me. To pull down the religion I had built up for myself, and erect another edifice upon the true foundation: but this was going to the root of the matter in a way I had never dreamed of, and I still continued to recoil from my bitter portion, without studying or soliciting the means of rendering it more palatable.

To deprive myself of the advantage of such associations was an act of greater selfdenial than I felt equal to; but I paid dearly | It seemed to me, in this state of mind, that for my short-lived enjoyment.

In due time, however, the hunting season came, and then my husband had sufficient animal stimulus to supply him with good hu- | mour even for the Ormorands, and we went on peaceably for a while, each following the bent of our different inclinations. With the hunting season came its worst accompaniments, dinner parties, and drinking; if not to actual brutality, yet to an excess that was far beyond my powers of toleration. On such occasions I was accustomed to shut myself up in my own chamber; but even here my senses were stunned, and my feelings shocked, by the shouts and the loud peals of vulgar laughter that issued from the dining-room.

How was it possible, after such days as these, to call in the domestics for evening prayer? and in the morning the aspect of things was so little better, that in time the custom was laid aside altogether; and we, who stood at the head of a clergyman's household, might truly have acknowledged to ourselves, and to each other, that we were not in a fit state to engage in the duty of family prayer.

Wounded, weary, and disappointed, I now sought the society of the Ormorands more for a sort of fascination which it possessed, than for any solid satisfaction which it afforded; indeed, had I weighed my feelings on returning home, I believe the balance would have been on the side of misery; the

no creature upon the face of the earth was so wretched as myself; and I often compared my situation, surrounded by comforts which I could not enjoy, to that of him who was doomed to perpetual thirst in the midst of water of which he was unable to drink.

If the mornings which took my husband to the field were the happiest of my life, the evenings of these days were the most miserable; for just at that hour (the grey twilight of a winter's evening) when those who enjoy domestic comforts gather in to the social circle, and draw around them the blessed influence of peace and love, I used to sit solitary and musing, waiting the tread of a tired hunter along the gravel walk beneath my window; and then the noisy entrance of a blustering man, calling with impatience for his dinner, to which he would sit down without either grace or gratitude; and when his keen appetite was a little abated, came the luxury of recounting his "glorious leaps," and magnificent exploits, added to that of drinking my health, with the health of any other person, man, woman, or child, who might "prove an excuse for the glass;" and then followed the deadly stupor of exhausted animal nature, with the heavy eyelids closed, and the whole face stiffened into the stupidity of sleep.

It is true I cannot pay myself the compliment of saying that I endeavoured to make the best of these opportunities to struggle against the disgust that was fast gaining

Of all those human infatuations which stand forth in glaring and palpable mockery of nature, and experience, and common sense, none can be more blind and fatally delusive, than that which leads a vain woman to believe, that by marrying a vicious man, she shall be able to turn him from the error of his ways. It is true he may promise | haviour, which I should have been sorry in

deed to infringe upon by the least touch of familiarity.

are permitted to hold different shades of opinion, to adopt different modes of worship, suited to the natural tone of our minds, and to meet at last where all these slight distinctions are merged into one bond of everlasting union.

"Let it be remembered," continued he, "amongst the mercies of which we daily partake, that we dwell in a land where our worship, whatever form it wears, may be lifted up in the face of mankind without fear, or shame, or danger, to that throne which our less privileged forefathers not unfrequent.

With my husband she held no intercourse. How would it now have been possible for beings so differently constituted, to meet on any common ground? Indeed they seldom met at all, except when he had good humour enough to come for me at night, and drive me home; and then the starched air, and impenetrably close shut lips of Lady St. Lewis, sufficiently indicated her sense of contamination to be dreaded from such society. She was of all persons the one in whose presence you would most dislike to ❘ly addressed, in secret and sorrow, from be guilty of a breach of good manners, or to give cause, by any kind of failure on your part, for what you more than suspected would be internal triumph on hers. With these feelings I always met her, and was truly thankful when I could say "good night," without having had my husband's conduct | as well as my own to answer for.

There came at last, however, a sudden termination to our slight and unsatisfactory intercourse. It was a memorable evening. Lady St. Lewis and I never met again.

We were seated, in our usual manner, around Mr. Ormorand's hospitable hearth, he who was properly the head of his family, expatiating upon that most interesting subject of discussion, (a subject which so few can treat with candour and coolness,) the difference of creeds, and the peculiarities of religious opinions: I, with my hands ever unoccupied, reclined upon a chair opposite the fire, and Lady St. Lewis was seated erect upon the sofa, stiff and strong in the dignity of a "wellgrounded and orthodox belief';" while at her side was Miss Robinson, a young girl with meek brow and braided hair, who occupied the dubious and unenviable post of poor relation; an humble friend, an untiring responder, and a faithful supporter of her ladyship's arguments.

the abodes of infamy, within prison walls, and amidst the horrors of martyrdom."

Just at the close of this sentence we were all startled by a thundering knock at the

door.

"Who can this be?" exclaimed Mrs. Ormorand. But I spoke not, for I knew too well. It was my husband. I heard his step coming with an uneven sledgy sound along the floor of the hall. One look was sufficient. With an elaborate attempt at more than common propriety, he addressed Mrs. Ormorand, and then turning to Lady St. Lewis, bowed so low that I began to fear he would never recover himself, but he did at last regain that erect posture which is so valuable a distinction between man and the brute; and having done this, he seated himself, with great complacency, beside me.

What can it be, which, on such occasions, seems to give tenfold intensity to the organs of sense and perception. In spite of my determination not to see anything, I beheld every body's eyes, and caught all the enquiring glances by which they appeared to ask of each other,-" What can be the matter!" And deaf as I would gladly have been, (deaf as the rocks to the drowning seaman,) I distinctly head Miss Robinson whisper to her aunt, "The man is intoxicated," while the indignant lady drew her neice closer to her elbow and shook the full folds of her dress, as she gathered it round her feet,

"I regard it," said Mr. Ormorand, "as a great blessing, a blessing for which we ought all to be unfailingly thankful, that in consideration to the weakness, the inconsistency, and the manifold wants of our nature, we away from all chance of contamination.

It seemed that others were not quite so much alive to the true state of things as I was myself, for good Mrs. Ormorand, always endeavouring to set every one at ease, addressed my husband on the common topics | of the weather, the roads, and the moon; while he, having just sense enough to perceive that he had made a breach in our conversation, begged we would proceed.

"Let me see," said he, with a sprightliness that intended to be very captivating, "I dare say you were talking about bible socie- ❘ ties, or Sunday schools. Do you know Mrs. Ormorand, there is nothing I doat upon like Sunday schools."

"Perhaps," replied this excellent manager of mischances, "you will have the goodness to add to the collection I am just now making for our annual rewards."

"With all the pleasure in the world!" exclaimed he, who was nominally the patron of the institution.

Thinking the tide was now setting in more favourably, I ventured to raise my eyes, and saw him fumble a sovereign out of his purse, and present it to Mrs. Ormorand.

"So far so good," thought I and my pulse beat slower. Encouraged by this appearance of sanity, Mr. Ormorand commenced again with the conversation which had been so suddenly interrupted, and addressing himself politely to my husband, "We have been endeavouring," said he, "to reconcile the slight differences in our religious belief, by considering the advantage which is thus afforded to the union of a variety of characters in one great cause; and you, Sir, I am sure, as a gentleman of liberal mind, as well as a warm supporter"A supporter, Sir," said my husband, springing upon his feet, and placing his hands upon the back of a chair, with all the mock majesty of a public speaker, while he thundered forth, with a voice which brought the domestics to the door to listen, "A supporter, Sir, of that church, Sir, whose institutions I venerate, whose laws I uphold, and whose unsullied purity I set forth: of that state, Sir whose king I obey,

to whose loyal subjects I offer my right hand, and of whose aristocracy, I am happy to say, that I make one, Sir."

"Show me the man, Sir, whose heart does not glow with indignation when he hears a base calumny against the church, Sir, that church which has flourished through ages, in the unassailed and unassailable power of her saint-like sublimity. Show me this man, Sir, and I will strike him with my foot. Show me Sir, the traitor who dares to harbour in his soul, not only the remotest thought, but the smallest iota of an idea derogatory to the majesty, and the might, and the magnificence of his sovereign, and I will shed my best blood, Sir, in uprooting him from the earth. Show me again, Sir, the man, woman, or child, who is base enough to submit to the degradation of dissent from that most holy, most venerable, most mighty, most grand,-most-mostevery thing of all institutions; and I will hiss, Sir, I will hiss as I do now;" and he actually pointed his finger full in the face of Lady St. Lewis, and prolonged the hissing sound until we had all time to grow stiff in the attitude of amazement.

To relate circumstantially what followed would be impossible. I had wondered until my astonishment was exhausted, I had felt until feeling was worn out, I had endured until the power of endurance was no more; I lost all susceptibility of impressions, and can recollect nothing after this scene except a confused call for carriages, in which lady St. Lewis and my husband both insisted upon being first. Her ladyship, however, gained the point in starting, but my worthy Nimrod soon drove past her with a yell of triumph, which made her coachman start upon his seat, and draw his horses off the road, as if to make way for a madman..

The week which followed this scene of absurdity was one of unbroken sullenness on the part of the offender, and of something very much of the same kind on mine, interrupted only by occasional tart and taunting allusions to the gross effrontery of such conduct.