"Not generous but weak, we should but injure ourselves, not those dependent on us in order to serve others."
Yet she felt as if a weight had passed from her heart, and though she was still apprehensive, she was no longer despairing.
[CHAPTER X.]
How brief is the time since her voice was the clearest,
Her laughter the loudest, amid the gay throng.
Hemans.
Could the selfish but remember how much less they would feel their own sorrows by sharing those of others, they would learn an easy way to alleviate the unhappiness they are continually guarding against, by so occupying themselves in thoughts of pity and kindness as to leave little room in their own minds for fear or regret.
The kindhearted very soon begin to feel an interest in those who are thrown much with them, and, though Lucy presented many faults to her notice, Mabel learnt to watch her with great interest. It soon became evident to her that she was perfectly in earnest in her attempts to engage the affections of Captain Clair, and, though at first she had been disgusted and pained at the idea—more ready to pity than condemn—she felt for Lucy when she perceived, by her variable spirits, that her heart was engaged in the flirtation she had so thoughtlessly commenced. The conduct of Clair puzzled her, she wished to believe that his attentions were serious, and yet she could not help thinking they meant nothing beyond the fashionable love he might often have professed for the most pleasing young lady of any society in which he happened to find himself. Still, she hoped she was mistaken; and thought, over again and again the little anecdotes which Lucy daily brought to her confidence, assuming them as unmistakeable signs of an affection which would soon declare itself.