Part 3 (2/2)

Mr Elford had endeavoured to provide against this, by a plain declaration of his sentiments and expectations; which Mrs Elford had too inconsiderately concluded she should continue to think rational and just She iined there was no fear of violent quarrels, between aas Mr Elford and a wonorant of the power of habit over her teht her misfortune, and pride and misfortune had made her fretful, melancholy and moody She had suffered no opposition from her first husband; her will had been his law; and she knew not, till she had race The least thing that offended her threw her into tears The passions of Mr Elford and my aunt were mutually too much inflamed for either of them to draw equitable and wise conclusions, and tears he held to be a false, insulting, and odioushim a tyrant: it was to say, I dare not utter my cory to doubt of or examine his reasons, convinced of his own humanity, and his desire to see and make her happy, such an accusation he considered so violently unjust as to be unpardonable

It ; she was often seized with fits of hysteric passion, in which the ed To reply to them, or atteatory to innocence; and the world half suspected him to be the tyrant he had been painted This increased his sense of injury, and consequently did not diminish the affliction of my aunt

Of the happiness, indeed, which was to result froe, she had conceived roain involved in the cares of a family, liable to the control of a man who expected the utmost propriety and order, who looked with a strict eye over every department, and whose opinion did not always coincide with her own, she becarew ten fold loomy She pined after that connubial affection which their reciprocal conduct was calculated to destroy; and from the hasty decisions of passion convinced herself, that no part of the blame was justly her own Mr Elford was no less obstinate in the contrary opinion Taking philosophy such as he found it, he like his neighbours too hastily concluded there were duties and affairs for whichued:

'The leading features in the character of an aood woman are mildness, complacency, and equanimity of temper The man, if he be a provident and worthy husband, is iitated, his ued He returns frorined perhaps at disappointry at indolent or perfidious people, and terrified lest his unavoidable connections with such people should make him appear to be indolent or perfidious himself Is this a time for the wife of his bosom, his dearest most intimate friend, to add to his vexations and increase the fever of an overburthened ue or a discontented brow? Business, in its most prosperous state, is full of anxiety, labour, and turmoil Oh! how dear to the memory of entle expressions, and who makes her lap soft to receive and hush his cares to rest There is not in all nature so fascinating an object as a faithful, tender, and affectionate wife!'

Had he wished for a ho, instead of indulging the caprice of indolence would have awakened hiht him to be just not captious, his desires would have been more rational: but, to a man who had formed a systeuined that obedience, in all cases, was the badge of abject slavery, they were absurd Thus opposite in principle and in practice, their unhappy state of existence finally became so intolerable, to one of them at least, as to occasion the violent measure and the painful sensations described by Mr Elford in the following letter

'TO MRS ELFORD,

'The bitterness of unjust reproach, the invectives of an ungoverned tongue, the rancorous accusations of a stubborn heart, these, wretched as they long have etful man! No more? You I can forsake; but where shall I fly to rid myself of them?

You have riveted them upon me, and while I have life they can never die With you I have travelled through the vale of tears: you, like misery personified, have held the cup of sorrow; have fed me with affliction, strewed thorns beneath ht Absence itself cannot afford a cure Yes, reconcile it to your conscience how you iven et, when I first thought of you for a wife, the plainness and sincerity hich I acted I carefully stated that er brother; that reat; but that it was sufficient, with industry and the character I had established, to gratify the desires of people whose hearts were not vitiated, and whose wants were bounded I conscientiously repeated overned family; and of the parts which it became the husband and the wife to take That was the tiht to havewas just, every thing was rational; and from your ready acquiescence to my proposals and the admiration hich you see that serene that delightful state of connubial happiness, so often desired and so seldom obtained

'On such conditions and with such views, I confidently entered with you into a partnershi+p which unhappily cannot be dissolved The irrevocable contract was scarcely ratified before it was violated

With a teloo to those inevitable little anxieties and vexations which occur in the most quiet families, you soon discovered your propensity to repel every thing that your jealous and fanciful tees

'Let your own heart testify how long and how ardently I endeavoured, byyou back to your duty But in vain: causes of disagreement became so frequent, and injury succeeded injury so fast, that I was obliged to proceed to those gentle severities which are all that a husband, who preserves a proper respect for hientle they certainly were, when compared to the contumely by which they were provoked I forbore those tender and endearing epithets, by which former affection should be continually revived I then avoided and indeed refused to converse with you, except in the coedyou to shun the rocks of ravate your folly

'It is true you had your hours of contrition, in which, with tears and prayers and unbounded acknowledgether with solemn assurances of reformation, you have for a moment recalled my lost love, and made me hope you would acquire some power over the discordant passions that devoured you But these prootten, that at length they afforded neither hope nor ease: they had only been glea that the te violence Yes, partial as I know you, and blind to your own errors, you cannot deny that at last you approached the fury, rather than the woman

'To aerrors and eager to redress them, even in cases where they do not personally affect able where they do, this eternal discord, these quarrels and despicable brawls are become insupportable I have endured the torture seven ht trial: surely that is sufficient to prove I have not wanted patience or fortitude To be a good husband and a provident father, and to protect those that depend on me from injury and want, are qualities which I believe the whole world will allow me, you alone excepted _You_ upbraid me with faults; _you_ accuse one, when your passions have subsided, and when you feel the want of , short of this desperate proof, could convince you of the criminality of your conduct

'Where I shall seek, where find, or where endure existence, or to what hospitable or inhospitable shore I shall wander, I know not yet: I only know that in England it cannot, shall not be We have lived long enough in ly to avoid, seas or death shall everlastingly divide us

W ELFORD'

This letter, although it contained many marks of that impatience which had increased his family misfortunes, could only have been written by a man of virtue, whose very austerity had in it a preponderance of benevolent intention Such was h but a child, I often had occasion to regret

By various plausible pretexts, with the hope of forwarding a fortune that was to descend to me, Mr Elford had been prevailed on to lend my father several sums of money, to the amount of seven hundred pounds My uncle too had found other occasions for the exercise of his humanity His property had been hastily sold, and therefore disadvantageously, so that the sun shores was but sh acquainted with my father's affairs to know that of the money lent to him there was little hope

To me he wrote a letter which will sufficiently she kind he would have been, had he possessed the power It was inclosed in one to my father, with directions to suffer iven toThe folloere its contents

'TO HUGH TREVOR

'My dear boy: young as you are, I have conceived a friendshi+p and affection for you, which perhaps inflict as severe a pang, at the presentcircuht Had I wealth to leave, I would endeavour to secure you from the baneful effects of poverty; as it is, accept all that I have to give, ood advice Though your understanding is greatly above your years, yet you cannot have experience and knowledge enough of sorrow to conceive what s are: but if hereafter you should remember me, and if at that e state you should wish for a friend like me to advise with, let this letter supply my place The miseries I have endured, by ly i else; and, inapplicable as it ht, I cannot persuadeof all topics, upon which I could write to you

'Of the wisdoe state, and of the virtue of the institution, I have lately begun to entertain the most serious doubts Whether they are well founded, or are the consequences of my own mistakes of conduct, I dare not at this moment determine: but, while the present forms of society exist, should you arrive at manhood the probability is that you will e, think of it as a duty; and not ence of some childish and irrational passion, which irrational people dignify with the name of love Let the affection you conceive for woman be founded on the qualities of her s first exaer; and next put the woman you intend to marry to the same test; for, unless you are mutually unshaken in your resolutions on this head, if you marry you are miserable The task of ood-huilant; without acrimony, devoid of captiousness, and free from passion It is mutually their duty to inspect and to expostulate, but to beware how they reprove Where gentleness and equani, happiness never can be obtained Believe me, my dear boy, I have never stood so low in htto passion The combats I have maintained to overcome this weakness are inconceivable

'Whether it be constitutional in me or habitual I cannot determine'--[Had Mr Elford been er is merely a habit]--'but I suspect that to this I chiefly owe my present misfortunes, as I am half persuaded there is no woman that may not be moulded into what form her husband pleases, provided he possess a superior understanding and an entire command of his temper But Oh! how severe the task to preserve a perfect equality in despite of the ill huo a thousand difficulties, encounter continual labours, and undauntedly expose yourself to every fatigue and danger!--I blush to think I have sunk beneath the trial--But we have both gone too far to recede: we have otten