CHAPTER XVII.
"Our reformation, glittering o'er our fault,
Like to bright metal on a sullen ground,
Doth draw more homage, and attract more eyes,
Than that which hath no foil to set it off."
After some days' absence, immediately upon the return of Doctor Lovesworth to the Hermitage, he failed not to call upon his friends at the Bower. He expressed himself highly pleased with his visit, which in the course of a short period he had consented to renew, but upon condition only of his being favoured, for a few days during the intermediate period, by the company of Colonel Douglas.
"The pleasure of seeing Mrs. Melbourne was quite unexpected," said he, "not having had the least intimation of her return from abroad, or that she was with her sister, Mrs. Boville, whom I had the satisfaction to settle in this our pleasing vicinity about twelve months since; you may recollect the circumstance, General, as calling me away from London during the period of your stay there. My duty to Mrs. Boville, as my step-mother, demanded of me
