THEIR FAMILY TROUBLES. 29

Edwards lived handsomely ; and, though Phebe could
never persuade her brother and sister to visit her,
she failed not to tell them of her prosperity, of her
gay life and acquaintance, and of her happiness as a
wife and mother. Whether, however, she gave a
brighter colouring to things than they deserved;
whether she wished to deceive others, or was herself
deceived, we cannot say ; but at the very time when
she was writing of her happiness and prosperity, her
husband’s name appeared in the gazette, and they
were deeply insolvent bankrupts.

“The world is not surprised, my dear Phebe, at
what has happened, however you may be,” wrote Mr.
Osborne to her, “nor are we. The time of trial is now
come; faint not now, nor lose courage; and above all
things do not forget God, who chastises us only in love,”

Poor Phebe! the time of trial was indeed come ;
and, for the first time in her life, she learnt what it
was to deny herself and take up her cross daily.
Every one finds this to be a hard lesson; and Phebe
was one to feel it bitterly, Edwards removed from
Liverpool to London; had one clerkship after an-
other, and lived as he could, now with money and
now without; yet never losing his unabashed plausi-
bility, and buoying himself up with the notion that
after all he should do somehow or other.

Few and far between were the letters which Phebe
wrote to her friends; and though she never com-
plained of narrow circumstances, she wrote mourn-
fully of the sickness and death of two of her chil-
dren. The Osbornes on their part were extremely
anxious about her; and though she never solicited
aid from them, the five and ten-pound notes which
good Mr. Osborne occasionally inclosed were always

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