ABSTRACT
This conference with Marchmont, though it had for awhile suspended those anxious thoughts with which Althea had begun her walk, now served only to shew her that there were others even more miserable than herself, and that the very persons who threatened to be the causes of her lasting unhappiness, unfeelingly added to the weight of sorrow that oppressed a man who appeared to deserve a better fate. A comparison could hardly fail to be made between this man and the fortunate, arrogant, eloquent Mohun – but how little to the advantage of the latter! Not merely because she thought one was the handsomest, and the other the ugliest of their species (for Althea did not allow herself to believe that personal beauty had any influence whatever on her mind), but, in proportion as the character of Marchmont appeared amiable and excellent, Mohun rose as a fiend destined to persecute her, and to oppress him; and if any thing could have been added to strengthen her resolution of suffering every extremity rather than become his wife, this new acquaintance was exactly calculated for the purpose.
