Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/51

 state of society in which she lived, imposed certain limitations on her candour. In her intercourse with me, there were fewer restraints than on any other occasion: my situation had made me more intimately acquainted with domestic transactions, with her views respecting her son, and with the terms on which she thought proper to stand with those whom old acquaintance or kindred gave some title to her good offices. In addition to all those motives to a candid treatment of me, there were others which owed their efficacy to her maternal regard for me, and to the artless and unsuspecting generosity of her character.

"Her hours were distributed with the utmost regularity, and appropriated to the best purposes. She selected her society without regard to any qualities but probity and talents: her associates were numerous; and her evening conversations embellished with all that could charm the senses, or instruct the understanding. This was a chosen field for the display of her magnificence; but her grandeur was without ostentation, and her gravity unmingled with haughtiness.

"From these my station excluded me; but I was compensated by the freedom of her communications in the intervals. She found pleasure in detailing to me the incidents that passed on these occasions, in rehearsing conversations, and depicting characters. There was an uncommon portion of dramatic merit in her recitals, besides valuable and curious information.

"One uniform effect was produced in me by this behaviour: each day I thought it impossible for my attachment and to receive any new accessions; yet the morrow was sure to produce some new emotion of respect or of gratitude, and to set the unrivalled accomplishments of this lady in a new and more favourable point of view. I contemplated no change in my condition: the necessity of change, whatever were the alternative, would have been a subject of piercing regret: I deemed my life a cheap sacrifice in her cause; no time would suffice to discharge the debt of gratitude that was due to her; yet it was continually accumulating. If an anxious thought ever invaded my bosom, it arose from this source.