Pagina 716 di 1118

Lucy was touched, even to tears, and her soul was filled with a

tenderness that withdrew her from the contemplation of her own

sorrows. The conversation of this worthy man had already imparted

a relief, that a direct appeal to her feelings would have failed

to procure. Her spirit, yielding to the charm of the description

of the august pomp of the church, of the emotions of piety there

excited, and partaking of the enthusiasm of the narrator, forgot

its woes, and, when obliged to recur to them, felt itself

strengthened. The thought even of the great sacrifice she had

imposed on herself, without having lost its bitterness, had

assumed the character of austere and solemn tranquillity.