256 THE MASTER OF THE HOUNDS. 



turn of mind, was sitting before dinner in an easy chair, with 

 his face buried in his hands, absorbed in sad forebodings, a 

 heavy sigh having just escaped his lips, when a geutle hand was 

 laid upon his arm, and a sweet voice whispered in his ear — 



" Dear William, what has caused that deep sigh 1 " 



" The thought, my own precious child," said he, rising and 

 clasping her to his heart, " of the many miles by which I shall 

 be separated, this time to-morrow, from her I love so dearly; 

 and the dread, which I cannot dispel, of that change which may 

 be effected in your present pure feelings by dissipation and 

 worldly influences. Many an innocent, chaste girl like yourself, 

 hitherto cheerful, happy, and contented in her rural home, has, 

 after a season in town, returned thither an altered being — 

 peevish, fretful, unhappy, and discontented — longing again for 

 the excitement of those scenes which have rendered her dis- 

 satisfied and miserable in domestic life." 



"You think, then, William, that I have no self-control 

 or strength of mind, but like a child shall be led astray and 

 taken captive by the glittering allurements of the fashionable 

 world?" 



" Heaven grant, dear girl, that you may ever continue, as 

 now, a child in simplicity of heart and thought ; yet how few 

 of the greatest and best of mankind, even the most favoured 

 children of the Almighty, have been able to resist temptation 

 in their hour of trial, or whose minds have not been affected by 

 those follies and vices to which all human nature is so prone to 

 yield 1 Lady Malcolm is, I fear, a votary of fashion ; and when 

 once engaged in that vortex of dissipation, of balls, routs, plays, 

 operas, concerts, dinner-parties, &c. &c., your mind having 

 become enervated or overstrained by unnatural excitement, you 

 will find yourself imperceptibly gliding down that curi'ent which 

 has carried thousands to destruction. Flattery also, which none 

 can wholly withstand, will lend her aid to beguile and reconcile 

 you to this new mode of life. Can you wonder, then, dear girl, 

 that my thouglits are troubled at the risk you will incur when 

 entering so young and inexperienced on these treacherous and 

 deceptive scenes? Were you to be changed from that dear, 

 artless, unaffected girl I now hold in my arms, into a flirting, 

 heartless woman of fashion, the now bright dawning of my 

 earthly happiness would sink into endless night. That dear 

 form, too, although so beautiful, so enchanting to my enrap- 

 tured vision, is but as the fair casket, containing a far more 

 precious jewel within — a chaste and unsullied heart, which I 



