with the ear of fancy the neighbouring shepherds enquiring how each had fared throughout the day; and beheld some hastening to their romantically situated cottages; while others laid them down beneath the shelter of embowering pines; the last beams of the sun glimmering o'er all, as if loath to quit such scenes of innocence and beauty. It was now indeed a time particularly adapted for such fancies as she indulged; a time when all
The fragrant hours, and Elves
Who slept in flowers the day,
And many a nymph who wreaths her brows with sedge,
And sheds the fresh'ning dew; and lovelier still,
The pensive pleasures sweet,
Prepare the shadowy car of eve.
A tender melancholy began to steal over the mind of Madeline; nor was Olivia's entirely free from it: 'twas a melancholy in union with the scene, and which taste and sensibility are so apt to feel and to indulge;
