Ever since the return of Robert Darnley from India, there had been an unpleasant and awkward restraint in the family, by the virtual prohibition of all mention of that topic which formerly had been the most agreeable and delightful of all topics. They had all been very partial to Penelope, and had admired and loved her cordially, till that wicked and profligate young hereditary legislator had so cruelly interrupted the correspondence between Robert Darnley and his young friend. And then all the family, except Robert Darnley himself, began to think unkindly and unjustly of the young woman; and then they began to find out defects and imperfections which they had never seen, thought of, or suspected before. That is a curious faculty which some persons possess of finding the virtues and vices in clusters. So that, in an individual whom they regard with a favorable eye, they can see nothing but what is good, and if by any one single change whatever, a revolution of feeling takes place in the mind, then all that was good becomes bad. The family at Neverden had been habituated to admire everything that Penelope Primrose said or did; but when they regarded her as having renounced her connexion and intimacy with the family, then were they greatly indignant and mightily censorious, and everything that she did, or thought, or said, became altogether stark naught. But who shall blame them? Is not this the almost universal feeling; of mankind? It is in this country most especially and peculiarly so. Every man’s own sect or party contains all that is wise and virtuous, while folly and vice are the lot of the rest of mankind. What does the Quarterly Review mean by “the wise and the good,” but Tories and high churchmen? When Cobbett wrote Peter Porcupine, he was one of the wise and good, and if he would become Peter Porcupine again, he would be again one of the wise and good. We will not however dwell very copiously upon the recollection of the unfriendly feelings which they of Neverden rectory once entertained towards Miss Primrose. They themselves have forgotten those feelings and have recanted their unkind expressions; and as for Penelope herself, there was too much joy in her heart to admit of a moment’s hesitation to forgive and forget. This is pleasant. And very pleasantly did the day pass and close at Neverden rectory; but it did not close quite so early as it had been wont to do. For, in consequence of the long suspension of social and pleasing family chat, there was an arrear of prate to be paid off; and every individual of the family had something new or extraordinary to say.