268 THE LEMON-PLANT. 



quiet spirit wherewith God loves to adorn his 

 dearest children. 



Her dress, her manner, every feature of her in- 

 telligent and pensive countenance, bespoke the un- 

 assuming disciple of a lowly Master. Elegant, 

 she could not but be, fashionable she had been, 

 and, as she told me, proud and overbearing. I 

 was forced to believe it, for Marie was infinitely 

 superior to the affectation of self-condemning hu- 

 mility ; but years of close observation did not ena- 

 ble me to detect a vestige of such characteristics. 

 It often astonished me that she, who so dearly 

 prized in others the gifts of intellect and superior 

 information, should be so utterly insensible of her 

 own elevated scale in both respects ; but I believe 

 it to have been, that having long traded in goodly 

 pearls, she so justly appreciated the one pearl of 

 great price, which she had happily found, that her 

 former collection faded into absolute nothingness 

 in the comparison. 



One hour passed in her society sufficed to rivet 

 my regard ; for, interested by some painful cir- 

 cumstances that she had previously heard, as con- 

 nected with my situation, she laid aside her habitual 

 reserve, and bestowed on me such sweet attentions 

 as would have won a much colder heart. It was 

 on that occasion that she gave me half of a sprig 

 of the Lemon-plant from her bosom; and find- 

 ing that it was a favourite shrub with me, she 



