sarily rigid external discipline; and such, it is feared, is too often the effect among the best-intentioned persons. Mary found it so in more than the present instance. There was in the same neighbourhood a large family who were brought up in like subjection. The sons found their home so disagreeable, that when they arrived at manhood, they preferred any profession to remaining there, and never made their parents a longer visit than decency required. No books of any nature were allowed in the house but such as treated on religion, and the doors were closely barred against every individual whose pretensions to piety were not fully established. Such a system was not likely to render the gospel attractive in the eyes of any one, far less in those of youth.

CHAPTER X.

" WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS, THERE IS LIBERTY." 2 Cor. iii. 17.

Nor many days after this, Mary accompanied her friends to dine at a house in the neighbourhood, where a large party was invited to meet them. The half-hour before dinner was spent with as much formality and silence as usually are felt, at that awkward period, among English people; but Mary would have thought little of this, had the stiffness and restraint worn away after they were seated at table. This was not, however, the case; for the good people of Dunbury seemed to consider it a duty to exercise self-denial in every enjoyment of life; and they succeeded so effectually in their endeavours, that a person unaccustomed to their habits, and unacquainted with their motives, would have considered them either in

the light of rigid papists under penance, or a body of people actuated by different feelings from the rest of mankind. The proportion of ladies infinitely preponderated, and some might maliciously have imagined that this circumstance would have been favourable to conversation; but it was not so; the ladies of Dunbury were either singularly shy and timid, or they maintained a vigilant guard upon their lips; the gentlemen attempted conversation, but in vain; the young ladies blushed and looked confused, and the repulsed gentlemen seemed afraid that they were infringing on the rules of decorum. The lady of the house begged them to ask the ladies to take wine, which was accordingly done, with many apologies for having required the hint; the young ladies declined with an air of great embarrassment, and most of the elderly ones feared that wine would not agree with them. Mary happened to be seated beside the curate whom she and her companions had met on the day of their visits; she accepted his invitation, and after two or three attempts to draw him into conversation, she fairly succeeded not only in inducing him to talk, but in gaining his confidence. This could not have been effected, had not a young lady who sat on Mary's other hand, and was a late addition to the society of Dun

bury, commenced a discussion with another clergyman and Mrs. Harding, on the employment of the Sunday. The young lady was extremely pretty, and evidently accustomed to attention. The elderly clergyman, a goodhumoured and amiable man, listened to her remarks with great kindness. She told him how she disposed of her hours on the Sunday, and how careful she was to avoid every thing that would tend to remind her of her weekly engagements. "When we were travelling in Ireland with mamma, we always made a point of ordering a cold dinner at the inns, that we might let them see we disapproved of work of any kind going on; but we could not help laughing one day, when the waiter told us they had to send over half the town to try and get some cold meat, as we had positively forbid their cooking any for us; and they actually attended so strictly to the injunction, that they brought in cold mutton, cold fish, cold potatoes, and cold pudding, telling us by way of merit, that having been busy with company the whole of Saturday, they had been obliged to cook our next day's dinner after twelve o'clock on Saturday night." The young lady next remarked on the many difficulties that came in the way of a person's strictly obeying the fourth commandment.

The

clergyman fully agreed with her, and observed that we might almost overstrain the point. "Do you think I do right in not reading my letters on that day? I never do allow myself to open one, I always put them in my bag till Monday morning, for I think we ought to exclude every thing that relates to worldly affairs; don't you think so, Mrs. Harding? Mrs. Harding quite assented. "And you know (continued the young lady, smiling rather significantly) that we sometimes have letters that we would like very much to open; you know, Mr. Ford, that we are sometimes very anxious about letters, and it is not always so easy when we get them, to put them away; we would like to see what our friends say, and what they are doing, and how they bear our absence." The clergyman smiled, and said he knew this must sometimes be the case.

While this conversation was going on, the curate was making his remarks upon the state of society in the place. It appeared that he had not long come into the neighbourhood, and had found it extremely difficult to fall into their habits, because the society he had left were altogether of a different class of Christians. The young lady's reflections on the observance of the Sabbath had caught his attention, and he