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.

22 JANE TALBOT.
merely with a good-morrow. I never mentioned Risberg's
name to my father, and observed that he as studiously
avoided lighting on the same topic.
One day a friend chanced to mention the greatness of
my fortune, and congratulated me on my title to two such
large patrimonies as those of Mrs. Fielder and my father.
I was far from viewing my condition in the same light
with my friend. My mother's fortune was indeed large
and permanent, but my claim to it was merely through
her voluntary favour, of which a thousand accidents might
bereave me. As to my father's property, Frank had
taken care very early to suggest to him that I was amply
provided for in Mrs. Fielder's good graces, and that it was
equitable to bequeath the whole inheritance to him. This
disposition, indeed, was not made without my knowledge;
but though I was sensible that I held of my maternal friend
but a very precarious tenure, that my character and education were likely to secure a much wiser and more useful
application of money than my brother's habits, it was
impossible for me openly to object to this arrangement;
so that, as things stood, though the world, in estimating
my merits, never forgot that my father was rich, and that
Frank and I were his only children, I had in reality no
prospect of inheriting a farthing from him.
Indeed, I always entertained a presentiment that I should
one day be-poor, and have to rely for subsistence on my
own labour. With this persuasion, I frequently busied my
thoughts in imagining the most lucrative and decent means
of employing my ingenuity, and directed my inquiries to
many things of little or no use but on the irksome supposition that I should one day live by my own labour.
But this is-a digression.
In answer to my friend's remarks, I observed that my
father's property was much less considerable than some
people imagined; that time made no accession to it; and
that my brother's well-known habits were likely to reduce
it much below its present standard, long before it would
come to a division.
" There, Jane, you are mistaken," said my friend, " or
rather you are willing to mislead me; for you must know
that, though your father appears to be idle, yet your