CHAPTER VIII.
FIRST LOVE.
WE are under very changeful influences in this world! The night on which occurred the interview with Aubrey that I have just narrated, I was burning to leave Devereux Court.

Within one little week from that time my eagerness was wonderfully abated.

The sagacious reader will readily discover the cause of this alteration.

About eight miles from my uncle's house was a seaport town; there were many and varied rides leading to it, and the town was a favourite place of visitation with all the family.

Within a few hundred yards of the town was a small cottage, prettily situated in the midst of a garden, kept with singular neatness, and ornamented with several rare shrubs and exotics.