ABSTRACT
With this disposition Sir Edward Newenden went early the next morning after his arrival at Grasmere to the cottage of Mrs. Montgomery. He found her greatly changed in the fortnight he had been absent: she was sensible of it herself; and repeated to him her concern that she should quit the world without seeing the two persons happy for whom she was most solicitous. ‘I have a letter,’ continued she, ‘from my brother, who is, I thank God, so much recovered from his illness that he promises me a visit, and Victorine and Chesterville come with him. He at length tastes of some tranquillity, and I shall embrace him before I die. He joins with me, dear Sir Edward, in wishing that Ethelinde may be yours; perhaps the united voice of all her friends may influence her to reward the merit of the living, since the dead are not to be recalled. I am persuaded that my Montgomery himself, if happy spirits are conscious of what passes in this world, would approve of her giving to you her hand; and that he would not consider his memory injured by its being cherished in the breast of your wife.’
