service in order to espouse her, and this idea caused her at the time more fear than happiness:  it appeared to her that she was going to quit Italy and return to England, where she had suffered so much.  The severity of manners and customs in that country returned to her mind, and love itself could not entirely triumph over the bitterness of her recollections.  But how astonished will she be in other circumstances at those thoughts, fleeting as they were! how she will abjure them!

Corinne ascended the ship, the interior of which presented a picture of the most studied cleanliness and order.  Nothing was heard but the voice of the captain, which was prolonged and repeated from one end to the other by command and obedience.  The subordination, regularity, silence, and serious deportment so remarkable on this ship, formed a system of social order rigid and free, in contrast with the city of Naples, so volatile, so passionate, and tumultuous.  Oswald was occupied with Corinne and the impressions she received; but his attention was sometimes diverted from her by the pleasure he felt in finding himself in his native country.  And indeed are not ships and the open sea a second country to an Englishman?  Oswald walked the deck with the English on board to learn the news from England, and to discuss the politics of their country; during which time Corinne was with some English ladies who had come from Naples to attend divine worship.  They were surrounded by their children, as beautiful as the day, but timid as their mothers; and not a word was spoken before a new acquaintance.  This constraint, this silence, rendered Corinne very sad; she turned her eyes towards beautiful Naples, towards its flowery shores, its animated existence, and sighed.  Fortunately for her Oswald did not perceive it; on the contrary, beholding her seated among English women, her dark eyelids cast down like their fair ones, and conforming in every respect to their manners, he felt a sensation of joy.  In vain does an Englishman find pleasure in foreign manners; his heart always reverts to the first impressions of his life.  If you ask Englishmen sailing at the extremity of the world whither they are going, they will answer you, home, if they are returning to England.  Their wishes and their sentiments are always turned towards their native country, at whatever distance they may be from it.

They descended between decks to hear divine service, and Corinne soon perceived that her idea was without foundation, that Lord Nelville had not formed the solemn project she had at first supposed.  She then reproached herself with having feared such an event, and the embarrassment of her present situation revived in her bosom; for all the company believed her to be the wife of Lord Nelville, and she had not the courage to say a word that might either destroy or confirm this idea.  Oswald suffered as cruelly as she did; but in the midst of a thousand rare qualities, there was much weakness and irresolution in his character.  These defects are unperceived by their possessor, and assume in his eyes a new form under every circumstance; he conceives it alternately to be prudence, sensibility, or delicacy, which defers the moment of adopting a resolution and prolongs a state of indecision; hardly ever does he feel that it is the same character which attaches this kind of inconvenience to every circumstance.