CHAPTER II.
"Elle étoit belle, et de plus la seule héritière!••
"Ce fut sur cela que je formai le projet de mon établissement."
Histoire de Fleur d'Epine.
Like the cards which form a child's plaything palace, our pleasures are nicely balanced one upon the other. The pleasure of change is opposed by that of habit; and if we love best that to which we are accustomed, we like best that which is new. Enjoyment is measured by the character of the individual. Lord Mandeville was sorry to leave Rome, because he had grown used to it. Lady Mandeville was delighted to leave it, because she had grown tired of it. Emily, actuated by that restlessness of hope which peculiarly belongs to hope that is solely imaginative, was rather relieved by, than pleased with, change. The map of her world was coloured by her affections, and it had but two divisions,—absence and presence. She
