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.

TIlE ENTHUSIASM OF LOVE.

73

friends leave to consider him as upon the eve of marriage, but had not thought proper to disclose to them the
name and family of the lady; that they were totally
in the dark on both these heads, but were inclined to
believe that she was a woman of Boston; that as to Mary
Wilmot, she knew nothing of her or her affairs.
Mrs. Kalm's curiosity was somewhat excited by the
singularity of my introduction, and she soon became
inquisitive in her turn. Encouraged by her frank and
communicative humour, I ventured to explain unreservedly the motive of my inquiries. She smiled at the
impression which the tale of the nurse and gossip had
made on my fears.
"Your uneasiness," said she, "was without any foundation. Perhaps we might have jestingly talked of Miss
Wilmot's elopement with Sedley, because his pretensions
to that girl are pretty well known; but I am not now to
be told that your friend was, on that journey, the companion not of the brother, but the sister; and that Miss
Wilmot's reputation and virtue could not be safer under
her own guardianship than under Mrs.Valentine's. Besides, there is not a man in the world of stricter principles than Sedley. What you have heard, or something
like it, might actually have passed at that dinner; but
no one could have construed it in a way injurious to
Sedley or your friend, but who was wholly unacquainted
with the parties, or who was very hungry after slander.
"Sedley certainly talked as if he knew more of Miss
Wilmot than he just then thought fit to disclose. What
he said was accompanied with nods and smiles of some
significance; but I should just as readily have put an
evil construction on his hints, had he been talking of his
own sister. All the world knows that a woman of meritwould be sure to receive from Sedley exactly the treatment which an affectionate brother would be disposed to
give.
"As to Miss Wilmot's disappearance, I never knew
till now there was any thing mysterious or suspicious in
her conduct. It is true, she left her former residence;
but, considering in whose company she left it, and the
privacy and solitude in which she had previously lived, I