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.

THE SECRET WITNESS.

23

of time as well as of money, because musical instruments
are not necessary to the practice of this art in its highest
perfection, and because books, when she should procure
leisure to read or money to purchase them, might be obtained in a cheaper and more commodious form than those
costly and splendid volumes with which her father's munificence had formerly supplied her.
To make her expenses as limited as possible was her
next care. For this end she assumed the province of
cook, the washing of house and clothes, and the cleansing
of furniture. Their house was small, the family consisted of no more than four persons, and all formality
and expensiveness were studiously discarded; but her
strength was unequal to unavoidable tasks. A vigorous
constitution could not supply the place of laborious
habits, and this part of her plan must have been changed
for one less frugal. The aid of a servant must have been
hired, if it had not been furnished by gratitude.
Some years before this misfortune, her mother had
taken under her protection a girl, the daughter of a poor
woman, who subsisted by labour, and who, dying, left this
child without friend or protector. This girl possessed
no very improvable capacity, and therefore could not
benefit by the benevolent exertions of her young mistress
as much as the latter desired; but her temper was artless
and affectionate, and she attached herself to Constantia
with the most entire devotion. In this change of fortune
she would not consent to be separated; and Miss Dudley,
influenced by her affection to her Lucy, and reflecting
that on the whole it was most to her advantage to share
with her at once her kindness and her poverty, retained
her as her companion. With this girl she shared the
domestic duties, scrupling not to divide with her the
meanest and most rugged as well as the lightest
offices.
This was not all. She, in the next place, considered
whether her ability extended no further than to save.
Could she not by the employment of her hands increase
the income as well as diminish the expense? Why should
she be precluded from all lucrative occupation? She soon
came to a resolution. She was mistress of her needle,