produce great effects, when neither the novelty of situation nor the charm of passion were present to soften or relieve them.
If Mary had been subject to personal vanity (which we believe she never was), Lady Anne would have effectually cured it long ago, for she had as often told her that she had lost her beauty, as she had, with equal candour, assured Isabella that she never possessed any; a circumstance that gave the eldest and youngest of her family a more than common tie to each other, although they were never envious of the rest, but, on the contrary, most affectionately attached even to the most praised and admired, a proof of great excellence in both. At this time, it had this farther effect, that each supposed there was some kind of physical similitude in their situation. As Mary could not but perceive that Isabella was amazingly improved in her person since her marriage, yet retaining all its peculiar character, when either Glentworth or her sister spoke of her own improvement she thought it was possible, which otherwise, in her long state of subdued spirits, she might not. She had therefore the consolation of believing that Lord Allerton, whom she had never seen since his marriage, would not be shocked by her appearance, often as her mother made the assertion, for she must have been a fool, instead of an humble woman, if she had not been conscious that she was at
