—Alas! I knew not that grief had preyed upon my

Henry's spirits, and that he was at that time confined to his bed with a slow fever.
I call heaven to witness, that, from the moment I became a wife, I most solemnly purposed to fulfil my duty, and never give Mr. Harlcy the smallest cause of discontent.—I concealed my grief, and even endeavoured to assume a chearful air; I received his friends and relations as graciously as I had power to do, and if a sigh escaped me in his presence, I blushed for having committed an involuntary fault; yet had I not at that time given vent to my swoln bosom, and poured forth all its sorrows to my faithful Watson, I must have died, overcharged with woe.
As soon as the hurry and dissipation of our wedding visits were at an end, my father left us, and from that hour Mr.

Harley became sullen and severe.—When we have been alone, and I have tried to sooth his temper, and to force a smile from his contracted brow, he would take out the fatal letter I had written to him before our marriage, con it over several times, then look upon me with contempt, and say,
'Tis damned dissimulation all.
—I could not, at such times, command my tears, in spite of me they flowed.—He then would sneer, and say,
Thank heaven, you feel the pangs of disappointed love.—So far we meet on equal terms.

We passed four months in this deplorable state; I had then the additional misfortune of losing my father, who died in scotland, and appointed Mr. Harley guardian to my brother.—On this account it was necessary for Mr. Harley to go there; and after my grief for my father had a little subsided, I felt a secret

satisfaction in thinking that business, and a new scene, might contribute to raise his spirits, and give a more chearful and contented turn to his mind.
From the time he left me, my days were spent in solitude, nor did my feet e'er pass the bounds of his demesne.—Miss Harley then was with me; our souls but ill accorded; she was quickly disgusted with the retired life I led, and quitted Harley-hill soon after her brother.
It was then the autumnal season, and thus freed from constraint, my time was all my own; a happiness I never had enjoyed before; and when the moon shone bright, I frequently indulged my meditations, even till midnight, in a grove and temple
