Page:The Wanderer (1814 Volume 1).pdf/469

This page has been validated.

( 437 )

you a last farewell! to leave upon the record of your memory the woes of my passion; and then consign myself for ever to my native oblivion. Till then, adieu, Albert Harleigh, adieu!

"Elinor Joddrel."

Harleigh read this letter with a disturbance that, for a while, wholly absorbed his mind in its contents. "Misguided, most unfortunate, yet admirable Elinor!" he cried, "what a terrible perversion is here of intellect! what a confusion of ideas! what an inextricable chaos of false principles, exaggerated feelings, and imaginary advancement in new doctrines of life!"

He paused, thoughtfully and sadly, till Ellis, though sorry to interrupt his meditations, begged his directions what to say upon returning to the house.

"What her present plan may be," he answered, "is by no means clear; but so boundless is the licence which the followers of the new systems allow