ing reflection, and the gloomy uncertainty of what was to come appeared lefs terrible.

A long interval was yet to pafs before any intelligence of the poor wanderer could arrive; and Althea was confcious how tedious and forlorn her defolate folitude would appear. Though fhe had never been accustomed to confidantes of her own age (for Mrs. Trevyllian had always difliked that girlish caballing which frequently corrupts the minds of young people), fhe now felt the want of fome one to whom fhe could speak of Marchmont without reftraint. Her thoughts again turned towards his mother and his fifters. To them alone could fhe hazard naming him. But they were far from her; and as Marchmont had affured her that his mother intended, as foon as he was in a place of greater fafety, to acknowledge all the kindneffes that Althea had intended, or that March

mont

mont had received; fhe was compelled to wait for this overture from Mrs. Marchmont, before fhe could venture to exprefs the ardent defire fhe felt to love and ferve her.

CHAP. X.

Ah! do not think thou art alone unhappy!"

THE day after the departure of Marchmont, the calm ftillness of the morning tempted Althea to revifit the shore, which was in some measure a new object to her, and would now, fhe thought, afford her a melancholy pleasure. From thence the propofed walking to the. cottage of Mrs. Mofely, with whom fhe wifhed to converfe; and having procured fuch a direction from Wansford as was likely to be a fufficient guide, fhe fet forth about one o'clock, intending to take a cold dinner at her

return.

The

The fame fpot, where for perhaps the laft time Althea had feen the only man.

fhe had ever thought of with approbation, and who might be called indeed almost the only perfon in the world who felt an intereft in her fate, or for whom fhe was herself interested, could hardly fail of infpiring her with mournful reflections but with them a degree of pleasure mingled itfelf, and the fort of day was well calculated to encourage the melancholy yet foothing reverie fhe fell into.

As on the day preceding, a gauzy mit hovered over the unruffled fea, fpreading from thence to the land, and foftening every object of the rich coast on either fide.

The quiet folemnity of the hour and fcene was not broken by the gay and lively verdure of May, for the distant landfcape was foftened by the hazy vapour; yet, as fhe wandered flowly along

M 3

along the broad margin of fand, which fhe had been told led to an easier acclivity of the cliff, from whence her walk to the cottage might be confiderably shortened, fhe remarked fome of those plants, inhabitants of the borders of the fea, of which her aunt had taught her the names on a former vifit to the coaft.

The fea reed grafs, covering many of the broad beds of fand, waved its yet feeble fpires in the hardly perceptible breeze; within the immediate fpray of the waves the feat holly put forth its gray and thorny leaves; and where the more undisturbed furface of the fands allowed them to be clothed with a flight covering of turf, the final yellow ftars of the ladies' bed-ftraw were juft opening among it. The fairy nofe

Arundo Arenaria.

+ Eryngium Maritimum.

Galium Verum.

gays,