shall know it, but perhaps you are tired of all this, and are ready to say with Virgil, Sicelides musæ, paullo majora canamus ; Yours ever, FREDERICK ELTON. To CHARLES SEDLEY, ESQUIRE. Aci reale, August 3, UPON my soul, Sedley, you are a pretty father confessor, and give pious admonition ! I am quite indignant at your answer to my first letter from Catania; either you or I must be greatly changed since we parted. I don't think our friendship could ever have been formed, if in the first instance our sentiments had been so dissimilar. I must honestly tell you, that if you ever write me such another letter about Adelina, our correspondence ceases on that head. It is true this charming Sicilian maid is fairer than Proserpine; but am I Pluto, that could tear her from the arms of her fond parent, and from the bright sphere she now moves in, to condemn her to the shades of wo, from which she could know no return? So powerfully do I feel "the might, the majesty of loveliness," that such a thought never entered my head, nor would it yours, if you had ever seen her; for one glance of her angelic eye would, like the touch of Ithuriel's spear, put to flight all the offspring of evil. Since I wrote to you last, Adelina's manner to me has totally changed; I scarcely ever see her when I come to the villa. I can't tell what to attribute this to, unless she thinks I have said too much and * Sicilian muse, begin a loftier strain; The lowly shrubs and trees that shade the plain DRYDEN. too little. The matter shan't rest long in doubt;-her father goes to Catania to-morrow, and I will take that opportunity for a complete explanation. I cannot tell you how much I dread the crisis of my fate so near at hand! No folly of my own shall deprive me of a wife possessed of every charm, and every virtue, that can sweeten or adorn life. If it did, I should deserve to be condemned to that matrimonial limbo my father and his frigid Venus are so pitiably bound in. I would prefer to such a trial the most ardent Purgatory! A wife so charming and so unloving, would drive me mad! Yours truly, FREDERICK ELTON. A few months after the date of this last letter, Mr. Sedley received one from his friend, written at Paris, but probably from pique at the style of raillery in which he had continued to express his ideas on the subject of his love for "La bella Adelina," Mr. Elton never afterward mentioned her name; and therefore, from that period, those Sedley received contained nothing of sufficient interest to present to the reader, who will now, however, have little difficulty in guessing the motive of the visit to Sicily, which Frederick mentions his intention of paying, in the letter which Lady Eltondale forwarded to Sir Henry Seymour, of which the subjoined is a copy. The " hopes and fears" he there speaks of, she supposed, alluded to some diplomatic appointments, as, for several months past, all his attention appeared to have been devoted to politics. And, whilst his father exulted in the hope of one day seeing the son he was so proud of "Minister Plenipotentiary" at Berlin, Petersburg, or Vienna, his fair spouse thought, with her usual sarcasm, "Frederick Elton is, no doubt, peculiarly qualified to carry on or develope the intrigues of a court, with his ridiculously romantic generosity, and high spirit, and candour! His elegant manner and his hand some person would carry every point he wished, if he would but avail himself of the influence these advantages would give him with the females, who are allpowerful in such scenes;—but the youth is much too high flown to have common sense on such matters. My Lord Eltondale is as silly on this subject as on all others, to wish to see his son in a situation where his mal-adresse will undoubtedly cover him with disgrace!" MR. ELTON TO THE VISCOUNT ELTONdale. My dear Father, Paris, July 25, I HOPE to be able to give you a satisfactory answer to your question of "How do you spend your time at Paris?" for I have been constantly employed, during the last year, in endeavouring to acquire the political information necessary for the public career you have chalked out for me; and this course of study I have pursued with increased ardour, since my return to this capital, with the congregation, not of preachers, but of kings, in order to compensate for the unpleasant interruption my pursuits received in spring from the marvellous apparition of the resuscitated French Emperor. I am now tired of being a gentleman at large; and if you will insist on my shining as an orator in the British senate, my maiden speech ought shortly to be made, for being five and twenty, I think I have no time to lose. I see the time approach, which we agreed on for my return to England, with a pleasure that is unalJoyed by a shade of regret, as the Continent contains no object whatever of interest to me. I hope to add much to your stock of agricultural knowledge, as I have made the various modes of practising that useful art one of my principal objects of inquiry; and from Syria to Picardy I think I shall be able to describe the present processes of husbandry to your satisfac 1 tion. After all, perhaps, you will find me only an ignoramus, though I fancy myself quite an adept. I set off to-morrow to pay a short visit to Sicily. You will, no doubt, be surprised at this retrograde movement; but should my mission prove successful, I will explain the cause of it when we meet, as I cannot trust my motives to paper; and if I do not carry my wishes into execution, you will, I am sure, spare me the pain of recapitulating them. But until my hopes and fears are at an end, I at least shall not re"bed of roses." pose on a I cannot well express my anxiety to see you, my ever kind father, after so long an absence! Pray remember me to Lady Eltondale. I am sorry she should so far impeach my gallantry, as to suppose it possible I could leave the letters of so fair a correspondent unanswered. I hope ere this the receipt of mine will have induced her to do me justice; if not, pray be my intercessor. By the ship Mary, bound for Plymouth, I sent Lady Eltondale some Sicilian vases and cameos, with a few bottles of ottar of roses, and some turquoises I procured at Constantinople. If her Ladyship has not received them, will you have the goodness to cause the necessary inquiries to be made at the office of my agent in London, to whom they were directed. Believe me, my dear Lord, Respectfully and affectionately yours, Sir Henry Seymour, with an air of triumph, gave the above letter to Selina to read out to her aunt; at the same time casting a look at Mrs. Galton, as much as to say, "You see I was quite right. I have provided a husband for Selina, that we shall be proud of." But her reflection on hearing it was, "I trust my affectionate, innocent, candid Selina is not destined to marry a cold-hearted designing politician. In what a style of heartless politeness does Mr. Elton speak of his father's wife! I fear he will treat his own in the same spirit of frigid etiquette;-indeed, nothing better is to be hoped, from the example he has always witnessed in his own domestic scene." CHAPTER XI. How hang those trappings on thy motley gown? SOON COON after the family at Deane Hall had lost the society of Augustus Mordaunt, they had accepted an invitation to dine at Webberly House. The appointed day having arrived, and Cecilia Webberly, being fully attired for the reception of the expected guests, placed herself in a negligent attitude near one of the windows of her mother's drawing-room, with a book in her hand, not for the purpose of reading, but for that of tossing it into a chair, conveniently set for the occasion, as she had seen Lady Eltondale throw her bonnet the evening of her unexpected arrival at Deane Hall. There could not, however, be a greater contrast, than the full-blown Cecilia Webberly presented, to the elegant fragile Viscountess. Full one-half of her massive figure stood confessed to sight, without a single particle of drapery. Her immense shoulders projected far above her sleeve; in truth, her arm was bare half way to her elbow, and her back in emulation nearly to her waist, whose circumference might well be termed the Arctic circle, as it was described at that distance from the pole, which exactly marked the |