CHAP. XIII. "The world's a school Of wrong; and what proficients swarm around! YOUNG. MR. Willoughby was become less attentive to Isabella, than she had ever before known him to be; less mindful as to what would amuse or gratify her; less in her company; and less cheerful when there. Over his natural gaiety and carelessness there seemed to have stolen a shadow of gravity, which would at times deepen even to abstraction, Isabella was alarmed: she knew that he lived much with Mr. Dunstan; nor could she wholly impute such a choice to the force of Lady Charlotte's attractions. It was not probable that, under the eye of her husband, she should be most disposed to display them; still less could Isabella believe that Mr. Dunstan himself could be the inducement which led Mr. Willoughby to his house; but she knew that Mr. Dunstan loved high play, and that from the most sordid motives, it was always to be found in his society; she knew also the appetite of her cousin George Stanton for this pernicious amusement, and the disgraceful advantage that he was supposed to make of it. She knew all this, and she trembled for the consequences that might ensue to the unsuspecting, open-hearted, and generous Willoughby-yet she was obliged to devour her griefs in silence, for to whom could she reveal them? she endeavoured, therefore, to forget them, and she found it easier to do so in the society of those whose study it seemed to be to charm away her hours, than either to consign herself to retirement and solitude, or to suffer herself to be dragged about from one place of publić amusement to another, where she met with no peculiar attentions, and excited no sympathy. It was therefore in the dissipation of private parties, that Isabella continued the vain attempt to find some indemnification for the want of happiness at home. -Here the ear was always soothed with flattery, and here she was perpetually stimulated to dazzle and to outshine Lady Charlotte; but having lost the hope that she could by these means regain the heart of her husband, the contest was carried on more from the desire of mortifying her rival, than from any expectation of good to herself. How changed at this period was the mind of Isabella!-She was yet innocent; innocent of the intention, even of the thought of ill-but she was giving the reins to every feeling which can lead the human heart to the consummation of vice! In endeavouring to excel Lady Charlotte in every frivolous distinction, and every idle expence, she had removed every restraint on her vanity. In seeking the admiration rather than the esteem of her husband, she had tasted of the pleasure that can result from admiration in general; and in the gratification which she received from such homage, she sometimes forgot the motive which led her to allow of it. Thus she gave an insight into her heart, which more encouraged the audacious hopes of those who sought to recommend themselves to her, than all the modesty of her outward demeanour and the propriety of her manner could do towards repressing them. She could now triumph in the mortification of her companions, and she could sicken at their success. Her temper had lost its placidity; her benevolence its generosity; there was envy, there was hatred, there was revenge in her heart; and she sanctified them all, by the simple consideration that she ought not to be outdone by Lady Charlotte! But Isabella was not thus changed without many secret upbraidings of that most true of all friends, while it is allowed to speak at all,-her conscience!-She could now look back with regret on those days of control, the emancipation from which had once been her most fervent wish;-she could remember, with something like |