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Indeed she was so terribly affected at the last, that Mr. Falconer was obliged to carry her in his arms to the carriage, and nothing less powerful than the sight of her mother's tears, could have induced her to make the efforts to overcome her sorrow, necessary for her own health and the comfort of her alarmed parents. Novelty of scene at length roused that curiosity so natural to her age, and succeeded in effecting the cure of her grief, yet it was by slow degrees, and with many relapses, that she returned to that composure of spirits which enabled her to enjoy the new, and, of course, attractive scenes which were offered in their journey from Scotland (where they landed) to the distant town of B——.

Mr. Falconer had with due attention to the health, habits, and taste of his lady, procured her a house about two miles out of town, which had been very handsomely furnished by the cares of Mrs. Ingalton, his partner's wife; was surrounded by the necessary appendages of a gentleman's house on a small scale, and certainly possessed in its narrow bounds many comforts, and even elegances, which would have been looked for in vain either in the old rambling manor house where she was born in Wales, or the turretted, but of late neglected walls of Sharon-Lacey. The wife was still young enough to conform her taste to circumstances, and in possessing the husband from whom she had been so much divided, and assuring herself of his undiminished affection, she felt thankful for the change in her situation, and ventured to look forward with hope to brighter prospects, as offered by her still sanguine husband. Maria was now not less willing to be pleased, but the novelties around were by no means agreeable. She said, "the pretty rooms were only like large closets, the garden itself was only a great carpet—there was no orchard, no dairy, no long room for dances, above all, no aviary nor green-house, and when you looked out of the windows there was only one green meadow on the other side of a broad dusty road—no river—no mountains, nor even a common with huts upon it, there were neither children nor pigs as far as she could see, nor any thing to be kind to whatever."