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 ENTHUSIASM OF LOVE.

107

of mankind, and that his notions of the goods and evils
of life differed much from those of his sister.
" This act, however, was not to be recalled, and it was
useless to make my brother repent of his precipitation.
I hoped that his intention would not be defeated, and
watched the conduct of your brother very carefully, to
discover the effect of his new acquisition. The effect
was such as I expected. Your brother's mode of life
underwent no change, and the money (as there were
easy means of discovering) lay in one of the banks untouched.
"My curiosity was awakened anew at your brother's
death, and Sedley had the satisfaction of perceiving that
your condition was visibly improved. You no longer
hired out your labour; you lived in retirement, indeed,
but with some-degree of neatness; and your time was
spent in improving and adorning your mind, and in those
offices of kindness and charity which, however arduous
in themselves, are made light by the consciousness of
dignity attending them.
"I admire and love you, and that day which would
make you my sister I should count the happiest of my
life. You have treated me with much distance and reserve; but I flattered myself that my overtures to intimacy had been rejected not on my own account, but on
that of my brother. Since you have been my companion,
I have noticed the proofs of your poverty with great uneasiness. I know that your money, all but a few hundred
dollars, still lies in one of the banks. Will you pardon
me for having been attentive to your conduct? For my
brother's sake, and for your own, I have watched all your
movements, and could tell you the times and portions
in which these hundreds have been drawn out, and have
formed very plausible guesses as to the mode in which
you have disposed of them.
" How to reconcile your seeming poverty with the possession of some thousands, —how to account for your
acquiescence in my wishes to attend me hither, and for
forbearing to use any more of this money for the supply
of your own wants,-has puzzled me a great deal. I perceive that you have dropped all intercourse with your
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