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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CLARA HOWARD; OR,

the most propitious events that could have happened.
Nothing but the belief of my death, and the consequent
distresses of my wife, could have softened the animosity
of her parents. Her disobedience, they thought, had
been amply punished, and, fate having taken from me
the power of receiving any advantage from their gift,
they consented to make her future life secure, at least,
from want.
" It was also lucky that their returning affection stopped
just where it did. Their resentment was still so powerful
as to make them refuse to see her, and to annex to their
gift the stern condition of residing at a distance from
them. Hence she was enabled to embark for America,
without detecting their mistake as to my death. They
carefully shut their ears against all intelligence of her
condition, whether direct or indirect, and will probably
pass their lives in ignorance of that which, if known,
would only revive their upbraidings and regrets.
"I am not sorry for the hardships I have endured.
They are not unpleasing to remembrance, and serve to
brighten and endear the enjoyments of my present state
by contrast with former sufferings. I have enough for
the kind of life which I prefer to all others, and have no
desire to enlarge my stock. Meanwhile, I am anxious
for the welfare of Miss Wilmot, and shall rejoice in
having been, though undesignedly, the means of her
prosperity.
"I heard, in Philadelphia, that a marriage was on foot
between her and you. I flattered myself, when I met you
this evening, that your companion was her, and secretly
congratulated you on the possession of so much gracefulness and beauty. In this, it seems, I was partly mistaken. This is a person very different from Mary Wilmot; but a friend, whom I met shortly after parting from
you, and to whom I described her, assured me that this
was the object of your choice. Pray, what has become
of Miss Wilmot?"
I frankly confessed to him my ignorance of her condition, and related what had formerly been the relation
between her and me. I expressed my surprise at finding
that she was still in possession of the money, after the