misery which must be her portion." "Can you believe that a man who thinks and acts in this manner is capable of cherishing an unfounded prejudice against you? and that of so strong a kind as even to affect the artless girl who owes every laudable quality to your care? No, indeed: the black fiend melancholy, whom I and the doctors used to scare, has again been flapping her bats wings over Lime Grove. You have been living by yourself, my dearest aunt. Humility has read you too many homilies. You want me to put you in mind of your virtues and talents. Indeed, I will soon see you, and I hope you will allow me to be better qualified for your eulogist now I have lived in the world, and seen virtues indisputably of a superior cast. In every thing Lord Avondel realizes those ideas of magnanimity and honour which many fancy

are fabulous. He has refused the nuptial settlement which our counsel say is always made by heiresses on their bridegrooms. He says he is become unexpectedly wealthy by felling some timber which really encumbered his estate, and by compelling his steward to disburse his peculations. He hinted somewhat of indecorum in such an arrangement, and that word always silences me. But he has intreated me to place my name as patroness of two charities, one in the north, the other in London, and to accompany my signature with magnificent donations. He only permits himself to enjoy the income of my fortune. He will allow of no contingent settlements, to vest the perpetuity in him, and he has angrily forbidden my uncle to act upon his intention of bequeathing him the Mandeville estate. He assigns as his reason, that such a perversion of pro

perty would only give his enemies an opportunity of scandalizing his honour, as it would compel him to do an ostentatious, and therefore equivocal, act of justice, by immediately restoring it to the lineal heirs.

"Even in comparatively trivial ar rangements, Lord Avondel acts by the same lofty principles. He has presented me with his mother's jewels. He calls me his Emily now, "My Emily," said he, "they are a parsimonious gift considered as the present of a nabob, but I had no passion for diamonds, and you will value these as coming from unsoiled hands, and from their having adorned women of illustrious birth and untainted honour. Their last possessor was eminently graced with all the passive virtues." His eyes shone with tears as he spoke. How admirable is filial piety, how does it confirm all my hopes of happiness!

He told me they were new set about twenty years ago for an event which never happened. He had then exercised his own taste, he wished me now to consult mine in alterations. I shall wear them as they are, for the style is extremely elegant; and among them are an aigrette and soltaire so like those worn by you in the miniature you gave me at Lime Grove, that I must preserve what will make me fancy I resemble you, ere indisposition and sorrow anticipated the ravages of time in your fine countenance.

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My uncle (worthy man) is almost frantic with ecstacy. He says he can live without me, as joy has cured the gout and asthma, and almost removed the cannon ball from his shoulder. He gives up his house in Berkley-square to my Lord, and retires to Mandeville castle immediately after the ceremony. We are to make an excursion to the

North to introduce me to my lord's connections, but we must not be long absent, as the winter will call him to the active discharge of the important duties of his high office. I sometimes doubt my own capability of appearing with propriety as the wife of a great public character; but I shall have such a supporter as few can boast. Perhaps you will smile when I tell you, that I am already exalted into a very sublime dignified personage. The respect and deference with which my lord treats me, makes my acquaintance consider me in a different point of view from what they used to do, and I really feel that I am no longer an unimportant romantic girl. Lucy Selwyn objected to the dress I had chosen to be presented in, and recommended one with a fuller pattern. She applied to my lord as umpire, and insisted that carnations on a lilac ground looked no