CHAPTER IV.
There are some characters so constituted, that of them the old
proverb, that Love is blind, is perfectly true; they can see no
imperfection in the mind or body of those dear to them. There are
others in whom the strongest affections do not destroy clearness of
vision, who see their friends on all sides, and perceive their faults
and foibles, without loving them the less.
Albinia Kendal was a person of the latter description. It might
almost be called her temptation, that her mind beheld all that came
before it in a clear, and a humorous light, such as only a
disposition overflowing with warm affection and with the energy of
kindness, could have prevented from bordering upon censoriousness.
She had imagination, but it was not such as to make an illusion of
the present, or to interfere with her almost satirical good sense.
Happily, religion and its earthly manifestation--charity regulated
her, taught her to fear to judge lest she should be judged,
strengthened her naturally fond affections, and tempered the keenness
that disappointment might soon have turned to sourness. The tongue,
the temper, and the judgment knew their own tendencies, and a guard
was set over them; and if the sentinel were ever torpid or deceived,
repentance paid the penalty.
She had not long seen her husband at home before she had
involuntarily completed her view of his character. Nature must have
designed him for a fellow of a college, where, apart from all cares,
he might have collected fragments of forgotten authors, and
immortalized his name by some edition of a Greek Lyric poet, known by
four poems and a half, and two-thirds of a line quoted somewhere
else.
Pages:
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69