of her heart had deadened it for the present to all personal taste of
happiness, and her only chance for regaining it, seemed through the
medium of bestowing it upon others. She had seen, too, by Mr Harrel,
how wretchedly external brilliancy could cover inward woe, and she had
learned at Delvile Castle to grow sick of parade and grandeur. Her
equipage, therefore, was without glare, though not without elegance,
her table was plain, though hospitably plentiful, her servants were for
use, though too numerous to be for labour. The system of her oeconomy,
like that of her liberality, was formed by rules of reason, and her own
ideas of right, and not by compliance with example, nor by emulation
with the gentry in her neighbourhood.

But though thus deviating in her actions from the usual customs of the
young and rich, she was peculiarly careful not to offend them by
singularity of manners. When she mixed with them, she was easy,
unaffected, and well bred, and though she saw them but seldom, her good
humour and desire of obliging kept them always her friends. The plan
she had early formed at Mrs Harrel's she now studied daily to put in
practice; but that part by which the useless or frivolous were to be
excluded her house, she found could only be supported by driving from
her half her acquaintance.

Another part, also, of that project she found still less easy of
adoption, which was solacing herself with the society of the wise,
good, and intelligent. Few answered this description, and those few
were with difficulty attainable. Many might with joy have sought out
her liberal dwelling, but no one had idly waited till the moment it was
at her disposal. All who possessed at once both talents and wealth,
were so generally courted they were rarely to be procured; and all who
to talents alone owed their consequence, demanded, if worth acquiring,