Her natural impetuosity of disposition, strengthened
by her mother's idolatrous indulgence, increased the haughtiness
of her character; and when, to these influences, we add that
her surviving parent was poor, and suffered from privations which
were unfelt by many of their neighbors, it may be easily conceived
that a temper and mind such as we have described those of Margaret
Cooper--ardent, commanding, and impatient, hourly found occasion,
even in the secluded village where she dwelt, for the exercise of
moods equally adverse to propriety and happiness. Isolated from the
world by circumstances, she doubly exiled herself from its social
indulgences, by the tyrannical sway of a superior will, strengthened
and stimulated by an excitable and ever feverish blood; and, as
we find her now, wandering sad and sternly by the brookside, afar
from the sports and humbler sources of happiness, which gentler
moods left open to the rest, so might she customarily be found, at
all hours, when it was not absolutely due to appearances that she
should be seen among the crowds.
We will not now seek to pursue her musings and trace them out to
their conclusions, nor will it be necessary that we should do more
than indicate their character.
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