it, not I!"-" Well, but really it is very pleasant, we might as well go."-"Did I make any objection? only I would rather you did not teaze me."-" Will you then go, and prepare yourself?"—" Indeed, Mr. Dean, I dislike being teazed exceedingly."-Here usually ended the first dialogue, which however was generally renewed at intervals for about half an hour; when, at length, the lady would rise from her seat and equip herself, and we all sallied forth. During the walk, she seldom joined in conversation, or deigned to notice the charming scenery, which varied at every step as we proceeded. Alas! she had no eye for the beauties of Nature, or heart for the sentiments they are formed to inspire! It was her usual manner to walk a little separated from the rest of the company; or, if she hung disconsolate upon the arm of her uninteresting husband, in musing mood, to hum at intervals, a little melancholy air, the knell of her departed gaiety!

They had only one son, who being very handsome, was admired for his beauty, dressed elegantly by his mother, and perfectly idolized (there being no other child in the family) by his father and paternal grandfather. He was suffered to domineer over the servants; and that part of education, which relates to the government of the temper, and the regulation of the moral conduct, being totally neglected, he grew up insolent and tyrannical; became early the slave of depraved appetite and passion, and died a victim to disease, brought on by his vices, at the age of

nineteen or twenty years. The unhappy father did not long survive; he left to his widow, the whole of his property, which the son had not squandered; and she had once more the world, as it might seem, at her command.

I never saw her after these events; but it is highly probable that notwithstanding her independent fortune, she must now have found herself a very forlorn, insulated being; for her very trifling pursuits, (if indeed she could be said to have pursued any thing,) her capricious, petulant temper, and highly selfish conduct, had effectually estranged from her all her early associates. With her sister, who was married, and had a numerous family, she had kept up no friendly intercourse, although she might have derived much pleasure from it herself, and have been useful in many respects, to her nephews and nieces, whose fortunes were not likely to be affluent. Deserted by all the world, she entered precipitately into a second marriage, with a person of plausible appearance and showy manners, and who had lived much abroad; but of whose conduct, character, or temper, she previously knew nothing. He had no habitation of his own, had been accustomed to a wandering life, and did not seem inclined to settle any where. He immediately sold all her furniture, dismissed her servants, disposed of her landed property, and then went from place to place without a single attendant, taking lodgings sometimes in farmhouses, and sometimes at different inns, in various parts of the kingdom. . One while they had a

small apartment in an ordinary public-house, close by the gates of the mansion of her first husband's father, where she had formerly presided as mistress, and who lived in great affluence and respectability. I know not whether she is yet living; but it is now many years since she wrote a cold, formal letter to her sister, telling her that she and her young people, must not expect any thing from her, for that she had given her whole fortune to her husband, as the reward of his extraordinary merit, but she did not say in what that merit consisted. The last authentic account I heard of her, was the following:

Travelling about twenty years ago, in a northern district of this county, we stopped at an inn, where I recognized the landlord, as having formerly been servant at the deanery; and I asked him, of course, if he knew what was become of his former mistress?-"O yes," he replied," she is married again, and the last summer, she and her husband had a bed-room in my house four months, with the use of a dining-room, when it could be spared them."-" And did he behave well to her?"-" I believe he did; for one day he called me into the room, and said, that perhaps I might have heard many things to his disadvantage, but he was going to convince me from Mrs. N's. own mouth, that they were untrue.— Then turning to her, he enquired. Do I not make you a very good husband, madam.' She instantly replied, Yes, indeed, Sir, you do, a very good husband.'" Does the reader require any other proof of their conjugal felicity?

How different has been the history and fate of that sister, who in early life, was completely eclipsed by the superior attractions of Mrs. N. She married also, and was left a widow many years ago; and although not without her share of sorrows and anxieties, and disappointments, she bore them with fortitude, and they led her to seek for consolation, where alone it can really be found. Although her circumstances were not affluent, she was a great benefactress to the poor: her habits of industry still continued; and she employed her time, like Dorcas of old, in making clothes for those who could not make them for themselves; and in doing every little act of kindness for the sick and needy, which came within the compass of her limited income. She has now been dead some years. She bore a long and painful illness with exemplary fortitude, resignation, and patience, and is doubtless gone to reap the reward of her many virtues. She was attended most assiduously and affectionately by her exemplary daughter, and is most deeply lamented by her friends, and by all the poor in the village where she resided.

CHAPTER 9.

Unfavourable influences on the Author's mind....Impor tance of knowing the character of early associates.... A train of family anxieties....Unpleasant traits in a brother's character....His unfavourable situation at school.. His dislike to study....His admittance at Cambridge.... Mrs. Maurice returns to Catterick....Misfortunes of her son-in-law....Remarkable memory of a child four years

old.

I CANNOT look back with any great satisfaction on that period of my life, in which I was entrusted with the confidential secrets of her, whose history I have previously related. It was not that my mind was infected, like hers, with an insatiable desire of general admiration; this, had I even wished it, I knew was quite unattainable. But the current of my thoughts was driven from its proper channel; present duties, if not wholly neglected, were but languidly performed; and at the time when I should have been laying up a stock of useful knowledge for future use, my attention was continually occupied by listening to the recital of some new adventure, or of some splendid conquest, meditated or achieved. Fortunately for me, my first visit at the deanery, already described, when I was just seventeen, broke the charm. I saw that the ardent lover, if he had no other quality to recommend him, might degenerate into a very stupid companion; and that the heroine of the Novel is not exactly fitted for the exemplary wife. I re

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