But all this would have gone as nothing, — ^had all ended
well at the last. — ^But to make such a finish ! — and that finish
to be partly, at least, occasioned by two concurrent causes,
from which I shoidd have expected better things— could not
but a£Pect me as I entered my habitation — Spiritless and crest
fallen, on the evening of my return : — ^indeed I can scarcely
repress the rising sigh, if not, the falling tear, when I yet
think of it.
It is, however struige, how the ruling passion will still
continue to evince itself, even in cases of the most discourage-
ing nature,— and help to bear us up, by the temporary employ-
ment it gives to our harassed ideas, even in the midst of cir-
cumstances peculiarly distressing.
