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nine-tenths of her life to a passion, that can, at best, last but a few months; and spends her remaining years in regretting her fond dream' but she who calculates well before she marries, and weighs calmly the pour and contre of the lot she chooses for life, can, at all events, never repent the choice, which she made deliberately. But, however, why should we cavil about words, when there is not a chance of our ever dissenting in action?" Then, reaching out her beau-* tiful hand to Selina, with a bewitching smile, "Come, my love," added she, "tell me what I am to say for you to your inamorato.” And then, by Selina's dictation, she returned a polite, but positive refusal to the obsequious Webberly.

The time now approached for Lord and Lady Eltondale's leaving London, if so might be called that removal of their physical bodies to another scene of action, where their habits, their pursuits, and their associates remained the same. The Viscountess had not yet completed the annual circle of dissipation, and it was therefore determined, that, while Lord Eltondale returned home alone, her Ladyship and Selina should, by a visit to Cheltenham, protract, for a still longer time, their return to the comparative retirement of Eltondale. Of course, the due preparation for this new scene of gayety served as an excuse for renewed visits to the whole circle of shops. In one of these expeditions Lady Eltondale had left Selina at Mrs.

's, in Bond-street, while she paid a visit in the neighbourhood; and Selina was just in the act of trying on a bonnet, that the officious milliner declared was supremely becoming, when her ears were suddenly assailed hy the loudest tone of Mrs. Sullivan's discordant voice, "Yes, it be wastly becoming to be sure; but, for my part, I thinks a little servility and policy, much more becoming to a young lady, be she never so much of an airy-ass. Ay, Ay, Miss Seymour, you may stare and gobble; but it's to you, and of you, I'm a speaking." "Of me, ma'am?" returned the

half frightened girl. "Yes, Miss, of you, with all your looks of modesty and ingeniousness;-bat, in my day, whenever a young lady got a love letter from a young man, she never lost no time in supplying to him; and, for my part, I think a purling answer to a civil question would never do nobody no harm, if it was the queen herself, in all her state of health." "If you allude to a letter from Mr. Webberly""To be sure I do," interrupted the zealous parent, "what else should I delude to? And if you did receive Jack's pistol, Miss Seymour, why didn't ye condescend to answer his operation yourself?" "I thought, my dear madam, Lady Eltondale could express my regrets much better than I could." Ay! Ay! Lady Eltondale, that's it-I'll tell ye vat, Miss Seymour-that 'ere Lady Eltondale vill make a cat's paw of you, if ye don't mind. As to my Jacky, he doesn't care for your refusal a brass farthing-but ye may go farther, and fare worse-he's healthy and wealthy, as the saying is; and he's not a man for a girl to throw over her shoulder-ye mayn't meet such a carowzel as his, every day in the veek.-But now I'll tell ye vat, once for all-ye see me and mine be a going to Ireland; and it may so be that ve may never see each other no more. Now, ye see, I always respected your old father, and so, out of compliment to him, I'll just give you a piece of my mind; and that is that that Lady Eltondale, with all her valk-softly airs, has some kind of a sign upon you, depend upon it, or she'd never take all the trouble she does about ye, for it's not in her nature to do it for mere affection to you or your father either; and that 'ere sheep-faced Mr. Sedley, with all his aperient indifference, and no shambles (nonchalance), as they call it; he's playing the puck with you too, I can see that, fast enough; and so, now, as I have given you varning, and wented my mind a little, I'll just shake hands with you, for old acquaintance sake." The reconciliation was scarcely effected, before Lady Eltondale returned for Selina, who most

joyfully escaped from her soi-disant friend. She casually mentioned the rencontre to the Viscountess, but did not mention the hints she had received: thus showing to her instructress her first essay in the practice of her own lessons in the art of dissimulation. By nature Selina's disposition was candid, even to a fault. For she was not only willing to confide all her actions, all her thoughts, to those she loved; but so necessary did she feel it to her happiness to be able to repose all her feelings, and even the responsibility of her conduct, on the bosom of another, that she would have preferred having an indifferent friend to being deprived of a confidant. But her intercourse with Lady Eltondale, had already, in some degree, seared her best feelings.

She had already, even then, acquired that general anxiety to please, which appertains more to vanity than to benevolence, and which never fails, in time, to wither the finer sensibilities of the soul. The natural superioriry of her talents enabled her, to discover the true character of those she associated with. But even her penetration was dangerous to her purity. She saw hypocrisy was the means, and self-interest the end, pursued by all: even the stronger passions were brought under their control: and in being convinced, that in the crowd that surrounded her there was no individual she could love, she experienced a chasm in her heart, which left it more open to the reception of those petrifying principles, that Lady Eltondale so sedulously inculcated. At this moment, in Selina's history she stood on that narrow line, which separates vice and virtue. Her avidity of praise, by teaching her how best to improve and exercise her talents, had as yet but increased her charms; and her distrust of others first taught her to exercise her own judgment. Circumstances were still to decide, whether her strengthening reason would serve to control the affections of her heart, or whether the school of stoicism, in which she now entered, would entire

ly eradicate its better feelings: whether her natural volatility was to be corrected by reflection, or matured into coquetry by artifice: in short, whether the dormant seeds of a rational education would finally spring up in the very hotbed of fashion, which called forth the premature weeds of folly and extravagance; or whether the intoxicating incense of flattery, aided both by the precept and example of the designing Viscountess, would destroy them in the bud, and offer up one more heartless victim as a sacrifice to that world, which but repays with present scorn and future repentance the devotion of its wretched votaries.

CHAPTER XXVII.

There is a joy in grief, when peace dwells in the breast of the sad, but sorrow wastes the mournful, and their days are few! They fall away like the flower on which the Sun looks in his strength, after the mildew has passed over it, and its head is heavy with the drops of night.

CROMA.

WHILST Selina thus brilliantly moved in the gayest scenes of fashionable splendour, Adelaide Wildenheim, unknown, unnoticed, was endeavouring, in the calm retirement of the country, to acquire fortitude to support a weight of misfortune, by which a less firm mind would have been crushed, and which, from time and space, seemed but to gain increased momentum.

In the beginning of winter, each day to her had passed by but as the sad shade of its miserable anniversary; for, at that period, she had not even the

consolation of seeing either Mr. or Mrs. Temple, and the inhabitants of Webberly House becoming hourly more repugnant to her feelings, she was insensibly falling a prey to that habitual depression of spirits, which is equally fatal to the mind and body of those who indulge in it; and which is indeed commonly but a refined name for discontent, or ill temper. Some trifling circumstances roused her to a sense of the state of her mind, and she immediately determined to struggle against it; resolving, as the best preliminary, to look her situation steadily in the face, and ascertain whether it was in her power to remedy it; well knowing, that if once convinced it was unavoidable, she should acquire strength to bear it, not only with resignation but cheerfulness. Though she but too acutely felt, that in losing a beloved parent, she had lost all that had formerly constituted the happiness of her existence; yet, in her rigid selfexamination, she confessed she harboured more of repining sorrow at being deprived of this blessing, than of gratitude to Heaven for having so long enjoyed it; and acknowledged it was unworthy of a religious or a rational being, to convert the felicity of one period of life into a curse for the remainder by vain comparison. Turning therefore from the past, she accused herself of being too fastidious in her sentiments towards the companions of her present lot; and, with laudable self-delusion, endeavoured to think her dislike of Mrs. Sullivan and the Miss Webberlys unreasonable; and that from the affection of the charming little Caroline she derived a pleasure more than equivalent to the annoyances occasioned by her mother and sisters. But here the mother and sisters very naturally brought the brother to her mind, and with him a long train of reflections, which ended in her adopting the wise but simple plan, of laying her situation open to Mr. and Mrs. Temple, in order to consult them, as to the propriety of her quitting Webberly House at the expiration of her minority.