EMILY. 175 



the short period intervening between these two important 

 epochs, she had had a prodigious run of admiration. Sonnets 

 had been penned on her pencilled brow, and the brows of 

 rival beauties had contracted at the homage paid to hers. 

 All this Emily had liked well enough perhaps a little better 

 than she ought ; but where was the wonder ? for besides 

 excuses general (such as early youth and early training) for 

 loving the world and the world's vanities, she had an excuse 

 of her own, in the fact that she had nothing else to love 

 no mother, no sister, no home, no home at least in its largest 

 and loving sense. She was the orphan but not wealthy ward 

 of a fashionable aunt, in whom the selfish regrets of age had 

 entirely frozen the few sympathies left open by the selfish en- 

 joyments of youth. 



When Emily married, and for a few months previous, it was 

 of course to be presumed that she had found something better 

 than the world whereon to fix the affection of her warm young 

 heart. At all events, she had found a somebody to love her, 

 and one who was worthy to be loved in return. Indeed a 

 better fellow than our friend F does not live ; but though 

 fairly good-looking, and the perfect gentleman, he was not 

 perhaps exactly the description of gentleman to excite any 

 rapid growth of romantic attachment in the bosom of an 

 admired girl of nineteen. 



Why did she marry him ! Simply because amongst her 

 admirers she liked nobody better, and because her aunt, who 



