CHAPTER XXI.
"Frail man, how various is thy lot below!
To-day though gales propitious blow,
And peace, soft gliding down the sky,
Lead love along and harmony;
To-morrow the gay scene deforms;
Then all around
The thunder's sound
Rolls rattling on through heaven's profound,
And down rush all the storms."
Beattie.
Upon contemplating Harcourt, and the despondency to which she had reduced him, Mrs. Herbert was sensible of compassion, of the reprovings even of her conscience; but these subsided upon the reflection that she had acted only in concert with that destiny which, according to her conceptions, ordained Rosilia for the spouse of her son.
But after thus taking upon herself to dismiss the unhappy Harcourt, to what plan or stratagem could she resort to give plausibility to her account? Of his continued perseverance in hovering near the house, the parents of Rosilia had been equally witness with herself; thus compro-
