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.

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ORMOND; OR,

sometimes visited by gleams of cheerfulness, and drew
advantageous comparisons between his present and former situation. A stillness not unakin to happiness frequently diffused itself over their winter evenings. Constantia enjoyed, in their full extent, the felicities of health
and self-approbation. The genius and eloquence of her
father, nourished by perpetual exercise, and undiverted
from its purpose by the intrusion of visible objects, frequently afforded her a delight in comparison with which
all other pleasures were mean.
CHAPTER III.
THIS period of tranquillity was short. Poverty hovered
at their threshold, and, in a state precarious as theirs, trials
could not be long excluded. The lady was more accustomed to anticipate good than evil, but she was not unconscious that the winter, which was hastening, would bring
with it numerous inconveniences. Wants during that
season are multiplied, while the means of supplying them
either fail or are diminished. Fuel is, alone, a cause of
expense equal to all other articles of subsistence. Her
dwelling was old, crazy, and full of avenues to air. It
was evident that neither fire nor clothing would, in a
habitation like that, attemper the chilling blasts. Her
scanty gains were equal to their needs during summer,
but would probably fall short during the prevalence of
cold.
These reflections could not fail sometimes to intrude.
She indulged them as long as they served merely to suggest expedients and provisions for the future, but laboured
to call away her attention when they merely produced
anxiety. This she more easily effected, as some months
of summer were still to come, and her knowledge of the
vicissitudes to which human life is subject taught her to
rely upon the occurrence of some fortunate though unforeseen event.
Accident suggested an expedient of this kind. Passing