"You cannot think what a punishment it has been for my fault," said she; "the reserve I have thought myself obliged to maintain—how many of your kind words have seemed to me so many reproaches. I was keeping a secret from those who kept none from me. But I was acting without mamma's sanction, and did not like to implicate my sisters."
"You were right," replied Isabella, "and I should not have surprised your confidence, had I not had something I wished to say. I know what you mean to do with Mr. Glentworth's gift—a marriage would scarcely be one without wedding-dresses—he has been equally generous to me, and you must keep the money till it is wanted, which, I hope, will be soon." So saying, affectionately kissing her, she vanished, without giving Louisa time for either objections or thanks.
Every age has its characteristic, and our present one is not behind its predecessors in that respect; it is the age of systems, every system enforced by a treatise. The politician who opposes the corn-laws and advocates free trade, does so on a system, which, as soon as it begins to work, will set the civilized world to rights. The phrenologist, who regulates heart and mind by undulations of the skull, has another system. The professor of animal magnetism, who throws housemaids into a deep sleep, when they talk Latin without knowing it, has a third. While Mrs. Geary, who makes stays the realization of the ancient girdle of the Graces, does so on a "system which has the approval of the
