Leonora Part 25

Letter cxiv.

_From Lady Leonora L---- to the d.u.c.h.ess of ----._

Yarmouth.

Joy, dearest mother! Come and share your daughter's happiness!

_Continued by General B----._

Lady Olivia, thus unmasked by her own hand, has fled to the Continent, declaring that she will never more return to England. There she is right--England is not a country fit for such women.--But I will never waste another word or thought upon her.

Mr L--- has given up the Russian emba.s.sy, and returns with Lady Leonora to L---- Castle to-morrow. He has invited me to accompany them. Lady Leonora is now the happiest of wives, and your grace the happiest of mothers.

I have the honour and the pleasure to be Your grace's sincerely attached, J. B.

Letter cxv.

_The d.u.c.h.ess of ---- to Lady Leonora L----._

My beloved daughter, pride and delight of your happy mother's heart, I give you joy! Your temper, fort.i.tude, and persevering affection, have now their just reward. Enjoy your happiness, heightened as it must be by the sense of self-approbation, and the sympathy of all who know you. And now let me indulge the vanity of a mother; let me exult in the accomplishment of my prophecies, and let me be listened to with due humility, when I prophesy again. With as much certainty as I foretold what is now present, I foresee, my child, your future destiny, and I predict that you will preserve while you live your husband's fondest affections. Your prudence will prevent you from indulging too far your taste for retirement, or for the exclusive society of your intimate friends. Spend your winters in London: your rank, your fortune, and I may be permitted to add, your character, manners, and abilities, give you the power of drawing round you persons of the best information and of the highest talents. Your husband will find, in such society, everything that can attach him to his home; and in you his most rational friend and his most charming companion, who will excite him to every generous and n.o.ble exertion.

For the good and wise there is in love a power unknown to the ignorant and the vicious, a power of communicating fresh energy to all the faculties of the soul, of exalting them to the highest state of perfection. The friends.h.i.+p which in later life succeeds to such love is perhaps the greatest, and certainly the most permanent blessing of life.

An admirable German writer--you see, my dear, that I have no prejudices against good German writers--an admirable German writer says, that "Love is like the morning shadows, which diminish as the day advances; but friends.h.i.+p is like the shadows of the evening, which increase even till the setting of the sun."

THE END.