"No," replied Anna, with a dejected air; "for she has mortified me greatly, by telling me my father was a beggar; sure he was not so low as that, or my mother would not have married him?"
"He professed to be a gentleman," said Mrs. Meridith, "as your uncle has told me, and that he was by no means an uneducated man; and his manners were very prepossessing, but he was little known in this neighbourhood till your mother married him."
"And where could she meet with him?" asked Anna, "I thought she knew nobody out of this village."
"But little of the world," said Mrs. Meridith, "or she would not have been taken with his specious appearance; but when about eighteen, she went to return a visit she had received from a young friend at the next town, and there she first knew him; he apprehended her to have more money than she really had, I suppose, and she was handsome, and agreeable, and perhaps at that time he did feel attached to her; it was evident she was pleased with him, and he gained her regard by following her home and making proposals to her father, who did not altogether approve of it; so your uncle says, but he saw her attachment, and therefore complied; a small house was taken for them in the village, and I believe he was to have part of your grandfather's farm, who promised to assist and instruct him in cultivating it; but he soon discovered himself unworthy of so good a wife; and at length she died; and you know the rest."
"My poor mother," said Anna, "how happy should I have been had you lived to have afforded you some comfort! But I am ungrateful to you, my dear mamma, in not saying I am happy now; and you have had your sorrows also; oh! may I be a comfort to you!"
"True, indeed, my Anna," returned Mrs. Meridith, "I have had my sorrows, and deeply have I felt them!"
Anna had never heard more than that her kind benefactress and friend had lost an affectionate husband, and three children; and she forbore now, as on former occasions, to ask by what circumstances; yet her looks strongly indicated her desire of hearing a more particular account of them; and Mrs. Meridith, reading her wishes in her countenance, told her that the next evening her uncle and aunt were with them, she would endeavour to relate them, if she found the recollection not too painful.
"In the mean time," said she, "I am thinking of farmer Ward; it is clear that he and his family are jealous of my attachment to your uncle and aunt, but they do not consider that gratitude, and an early acquaintance has caused me to notice them more than others; besides there is such an upright integrity in your uncle, so free from any of the fulsome flattery I have met with, and so much unaffected intelligence, that his company is agreeable to me: and your aunt's likewise, who is a sensible, well-informed woman, and our sentiments agree: she knows what the world is from theory, I from experience; and I scruple not to say, I find them both pleasant companions. But it is not likely farmer Ward and his wife would be so; they were I know very differently brought up, and though very honest, industrious people, would despise any other conversation than that which related to their farm and its occupations; but I do not ridicule them for this, I thought they were happy and satisfied; at least they were so, till Envy reared her snaky head."
"Well, indeed," said Anna, interrupting her, "may Envy be thus represented surrounded by snakes, for she is extending her malice to every one she can reach, and instigating all in her power to do the same.
"It is Medusa, one of the three Gorgons, whose hair Minerva changed into snakes for polluting her temple, who is thus represented," said Mrs. Meridith; "but there is in one of the poets a very striking picture of Envy, describing her as eating her own bowels; if I am not mistaken, it is in Spenser's Fairy Queen, we will look this evening: but to return to farmer Ward, I tell you what I mean to do respecting him, because I hope hereafter (if you find no ill effect arising from it) you will do the same."