During this period of Miss Cowley’s life, her father had gradually recovered his health and spirits; urged by the remonstrances and arguments of his friends, he had, on parting with his daughter, employed his leisure, and diverted his mind by building a house on a newly purchased plantation nearer to Kingston, and within the reach of a friend to whom he was peculiarly attached. Amused by this object of pursuit, he was led to other improvements of the spot; and in his new abode he saw another Eden bloom, without the sad recollection which had haunted his footsteps in the favourite retreat of his still regretted wife and his beloved child. Mr. Cowley, in consequence of his multiplied avocations, and the renewal of his social feelings, became satisfied with mentioning from time to time his _intention_ of visiting England. Mr. Hardcastle was no stranger to the real cause of his friend’s delay, but his prudence concealed from his ward a subject of regret to himself, and of concern to his wife and Mrs. Allen. The negro girl who had been selected, for the sweetness of her temper and the graces of nature, as the playmate in Miss Cowley’s nursery, had gained the notice of her father, and had enjoyed Mrs. Allen’s attentions to her improvement in useful learning. It had been debated whether Marian might not have been serviceable to her young lady during the voyage: the proposal had been rejected; for Mrs. Allen perfectly understood that the compliances of a slave were not of that sort which her pupil needed. She therefore left the girl to the care of the housekeeper, and in a condition of ease and comfort under Mrs. Cowley’s roof. Poor Cowley was soothed in his first depression of spirits on losing sight of his idol, by finding he had a sharer in his sorrow; and he gratified his benevolence by being Marian’s consoler. She in her turn solaced his lonely hours by talking of her “dear missee,” and accompanying him in his walks. Habits of affection and kindness were thus mutually formed, and gave rise to an attachment incompatible with innocence and honour. At an early age Marian was formally emancipated from her chains as a _negro slave_, in order to bear the shackles of a mistress. But in this deviation from his hitherto regular and moral conduct, Mr. Cowley forgot not _decorum_; his favourite resided with privacy at the more remote plantation, which was called the Creek Savannah, and he lived in the new house already mentioned. His friends, who loved him, overlooked a frailty which unfortunately was not particularly Mr. Cowley’s weakness: but they did more; for they attributed his conduct to the steady purpose of remaining unmarried for his daughter’s sake. Mr. Hardcastle’s opinions were not of this pliant sort; but he well knew that his arguments would be lost on a man who had silenced his own principles of religious observances: certain that Miss Cowley had experienced no failure of her father’s