.... That amiable Almena received me with the sweetest complacency, as the friend of her brother.... Edward's penetration soon discovered the ill hid partiality.... ... .... neither should she wish to throw me into despair....] The band of music now began to play in the garden. They commenced with the celebrated air of the Star-Spangled Banner, and continued playing different pieces for the space of several hours. As soon as the music ceased, they left the garden to return home, and all the people now apparently thronged out of the gates with as much avidity as they had entered them some hours before. When they arrived at the dwelling of Alida, they found that the time had whiled away, and that the evening had progressed to a late hour. On his way home the mind of Mr. More was absorbed in the following reflections. "When I told her my affection, the blush was diffused over her cheek--and the tear of sensibility started in her eye. She evinced her regard by silent expressions, which she has shown repeatedly in many proofs of interested friendship, accompanied by the softness of her winning manners, and the engaging mildness of her disposition. Bonville is her declared admirer--but he may not be a favoured one. Should he meet with her approbation at any future time, would not his own fate be wretched, and the universe would become a blank deprived of the society of Alida, shaded over with the deepest tints of darkness and melancholy." CHAPTER XXIII. O let me view, in annual succession, my children, friends, and relatives. Those that in friendship's bonds are linked together by ties of dear remembrance. The scene was highly animated, and the days were delightfully pleasant, when Alida returned with her parents to the country. The showers of April had cleared the atmosphere and revived the earth with a lively gaiety. The ice in the bay and river had melted away, and the steamboat had again began its course. The rumbling water-fall was again heard at the mill, the pensive stream stole its way through the forest, reflecting from its lucid bosom the light cloud which dwelt in the air--floating on the gentlest zephyrs. The hills and mountains teemed with verdure, and the serpentine valleys were shaded by a friendly foliage. All nature flourished, grew, and expanded, calling forth ejaculations of gratitude and piety, and boldly declaring that a celestial Being overshadows us with his providence. [_Alida_ page 131 (chapter XVI): while the gentle murmuring of the water-fall at the mill, with its rumbling cadence over the dam, was heard at a little distance.]