CHAPTER V.
"Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise.
He who defers his work from day to day,
Does on a river's bank expecting stay,
Till the whole stream, that stopp'd him, shall be gone,
Which runs, and as it runs, for ever shall run on."
After the sisters had passed a most agreeable week with the Valpées, Mrs. De Brooke came in her carriage to convey them home. She returned her children's affectionate embrace, and though she had been undergoing penance during their absence, she Avould still most wilhngly for their sakes have endured it longer, had she not conceived it necessary to remove them.
Upon the meeting of Valpée with Mrs. De Brooke, his outward compliments did but ill conceal his inward chagrin at the prospect of losing the society of Oriana, whose vivacity and playful raillery had conduced most agreeably to recreate his mind from the dryness of his college avocations. He was therefore inclined to deem Mrs. De Brooke an intruder; for Valpée, the favourite of fortune,
