This done she took an
affectionate leave of her, and with many bitter tears bade farewell to
the Abbey.
On retiring to her room that evening, Mrs. Wildman could not refrain
from inspecting the legacy of this singular being. On opening the
packet, she found a number of fugitive poems, written in a most
delicate and minute hand, and evidently the fruits of her reveries and
meditations during her lonely rambles; from these the foregoing
extracts have been made. These were accompanied by a voluminous letter,
written with the pathos and eloquence of genuine feeling, and depicting
her peculiar situation and singular state of mind in dark but painful
colors.
"The last time," says she, "that I had the pleasure of seeing you, in
the garden, you asked me why I leave Newstead; when I told you my
circumstances obliged me, the expression of concern which I fancied I
observed in your look and manner would have encouraged me to have been
explicit at the time, but from my inability of expressing myself
verbally."
She then goes on to detail precisely her pecuniary circumstances, by
which it appears that her whole dependence for subsistence was on an
allowance of thirteen pounds a year from her cousin, who bestowed it
through a feeling of pride, lest his relative should come upon the
parish.
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