, by the sight of her father's grave, marked by a modest
stone, recording his piety and integrity; but lighter impressions and
associations had also power over her. She amused herself with visiting the
dairy, in which she had so long been assistant, and was so near discovering
herself to May Hettly, by betraying her acquaintance with the celebrated receipt
for Dunlop cheese, that she compared herself to Bedreddin Hassan, whom the
vizier, his father-in-law, discovered by his superlative skill in composing
cream-tarts with pepper in them. But when the novelty of such avocations ceased
to amuse her, she showed to her sister but too plainly, that the gaudy colouring
with which she veiled her unhappiness afforded as little real comfort, as the
gay uniform of the soldier when it is drawn over his mortal wound. There were
moods and moments, in which her despondence seemed to exceed even that which she
herself had described in her letters, and which too well convinced Mrs. Butler
how little her sister's lot, which in appearance was so brilliant, was in
reality to be envied.
    There was one source, however, from which Lady Staunton derived a pure
degree of pleasure. Gifted in every particular with a higher degree of
imagination than that of her sister, she was an admirer of the beauties of
nature, a taste which compensates many evils to those who happen to enjoy it.
Here her character of a fine lady stopped short, where she ought to have
 
Scream'd at ilk cleugh, and screech'd at ilka how,
As loud as she had seen the worrie-cow.
 
On the contrary, with the two boys for her guides, she undertook long and
fatiguing walks among the neighbouring mountains, to visit glens, lakes,
waterfalls, or whatever scenes of natural wonder or beauty lay concealed among
their recesses. It is Wordsworth, I think, who, talking of an old man under
difficulties, remarks, with a singular attention to nature,
 
- whether it was care that spurr'd him,
God only knows; but to the very last,
He had the lightest foot in Ennerdale.
 
In the same manner, languid, listless, and unhappy, within doors, at times even
indicating something which approached near to contempt of the homely
accommodations of her sister's house, although she instantly endeavoured, by a
thousand kindnesses, to atone for such ebullitions of spleen, Lady Staunton
appeared to feel interest and energy while in the open air, and traversing the
mountain landscapes in society with the two boys, whose ears she delighted with
stories of