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.

6

CLARA HOWARD; OR,

which her silence would entail upon me? Could she question the continuance and fervency of my zeal for your
welfare? What have I done to estrange her heart, to
awaken her resentment?
She does not live with Sedley. That question Mr. Phillip's report has decided. At least, she does not live with
him as his wife. Impossible that Mary Wilmot should be
allied to any man by a different tie! It is sacrilege so
much as to whisper to one's heart the surmise. Yet have
I not written it? Have I not several times pondered on
it? What has so often suggested these frightful images?
This mysterious, this impenetrable silence it is that
astounds and perplexes me,-this evident desire, which
her conduct betrayed, to be not sought after by me, and
this departure in company with Sedley,-the man whom
so long a devotion, so many services, had not induced her
to suffer his visits. To sever herself thus abruptly and forever from me, to whom she had given all her tenderness,
with whom she had divided all her cares during years, to s
whom the marriage-promise had been solemnly pledged,
and trust herself, on some long and incomprehensible
journey, with one whom she had thought it her duty to
shun,-to exclude, on all occasions, from her company,
-is beyond my comprehension.
But I am tired of the pen already,-of myself,-of
the world.
* * * * * *
Ah, Clara! can so groundless a punctilio govern thee?
The settled gloom of thy aspect,-thy agitation, when too
tenderly urged by me,-thy tears, that, in spite of heroic
resolutions, will sometimes find way,-prove thy heart to
be still mine.
But I will urge thee, I will distress thee, no more. Thy
last words have put an end to my importunity. Can I
ever forget them, or the looks and gestures with which
* they were spoken?
"I never will be yours! Have I not heard all your
pleas,-all your reasonings? And am I not now furnished
with all the means of a right judgment? I have listened
to you twenty times upon this topic, and always patiently.
Now listen to me.