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.

46

ORMOND; OR,

ing to undertake the tendance of this girl was by no
means probable. As wives and mothers, it would perhaps be unjust to require or permit it. As to herself,
there were labours and duties of her own sufficient to
engross her faculties; yet, by whatever foreign cares or
tasks she was oppressed, she felt that to desert this being
was impossible.
In the absence of her friend, Mary's state exhibited no
change. Constantia, on regaining the house, lighted the
remnant of a candle, and resumed her place by the bedside of the sick girl. She impatiently waited for the
arrival of the physician, but hour succeeded hour and he
came not. All hope of his coming being extinguished,
she bethought herself that her father might be able to
inform her of the best manner of proceeding. It was
likewise her duty to relieve him from the suspense in
which her absence would unavoidably plunge him.
On entering her own apartment, she found a stranger
in company with Mr. Dudley. The latter, perceiving
that she had returned, speedily acquainted her with the
views of their guest. His name was M'Crea; he was
the nephew of their landlord, and was now become, by
reversion, the proprietor of the house which they occupied. Mathews had been buried the preceding day, and
M'Crea, being well acquainted with the engagements
which subsisted between the deceased and Mr. Dudley,
had come, thus unseasonably, to demand the rent. He
was not unconscious of the inhumanity and sordidness of
this proceeding, and therefore endeavoured to disguise it
by the usual pretences. All his funds were exhausted.
He came not only in his own name, but in that of Mrs.
Mathews, his aunt, who was destitute of money to procure daily and indispensable provision, and who was
striving to collect a sufficient sum to enable her and the
remains of her family to fly from a spot where their lives
were in perpetual danger.
These excuses were abundantly fallacious, but Mr.
Dudley was too proud to solicit the forbearance of a man
like this. IIe recollected that the engagement on his
part was voluntary and explicit, and he disdained to
urge his present exigencies as reasons for retracting it.