The novels of Charles Brockden Brown, consisting of Wieland;or, The transformation. Arthur Mervyn; or, Memoirs of the year 1793. Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a sleep-walker. Jane Talbot. Ormond; or, The secret witness. Clara Howard; or, The enthusiasm of love. With a memoir of the author.

JANE TALBOT. 183
art here; for is not thy hand already in hers, and is not
thy cheek already wet with her tears? for thy poor girl's
eyes are as sure to overflow with joy as with sorrow.
And will it be always thus, my dear friend? Will thy
love screen me forever from remorse? will my mother's
reproaches never intrude amidst the raptures of fondness
and poison my tranquillity?'What will she say when she discovers the truth'? My
conscience will not allow me to dissemble. It will not
disavow the name or withhold the duties of a wife. Too
well do I conceive what she will say,-how she will
act.
I need not apprehend expulsion from her house. Exile
will be a voluntary act:-" You shall eat, drink, lodge,
and dress as well as ever. I will not sever husband from
wife, and I find no pleasure inl seeing those whom I most
hate perishing with want. I threatened to abandon you,
merely because I would employ every means of preventing your destruction; but my revenge is not so sordid as
to multiply unnecessary evils on your head. I shall take
from you nothing but my esteem,-my affection,-my
society. I shall never see you but with agony; I shall
never think of you without pain. I part with you forever, and prepare myself for that grave which your folly
and ingratitude have dug for me.
" You have said, Jane, that, having lost my favour, you
will never live upon my bounty. That will be an act of
needless and perverse cruelty in you. It will be wantonly
adding to that weight with which you have already sunk
me to the grave. Besides, I will not leave you an option.
While I live, my watchful care shall screen you from
penury in spite of yourself. When I die, my testament
shall make you my sole successor. What I have shall be
yours, —at least, while you live.
"I have deeply regretted the folly of threatening you
with loss of property. I should have known you better
than to think that a romantic head like yours would find
any thing formidable in such deprivations. If other considerations were feeble, this would be chimerical.
" Fare you well, Jane, and, when you become a mother,
may your tenderness never be requited by the folly and