"but

utter a word; do you know I have had a letter from Mortimer, the best fellow in the world, and he says-what do you think he says ?"-"I really cannot think at all upon a subject I do not know."-" He says- I believe it would become Mary to tell it better than me."-"No indeed," said Mary, "I don't understand it at all as you do; you must tell it yourself."—"It is very awkward," she said; do you know, he says, Lord R. is out of health and spirits, and he is ordered to Devonshire to get a fresh stock, and I am to get a house for him as near the sea as possible."-" And how can I possibly have any interest in that ?"" Why, my dear creature, he is a Lord."-" That may be a very good thing for him," said Fanny, "but what is that to me ?"-"Oh, you will see him at church," she replied, "and that will be something; you may meet him upon

upon the beach, you know, and I will present you."" Oh, by no means,' said Fanny, "I would upon no account have that done. A country girl is by no means a fit acquaintance for a gay man of fashion; he could not know her merits, and she would be a very incompetent judge of his; and nothing is so annoying to an invalid as new and dull faces."-"Oh," said Miss Volatile, "he is so affable, you would like him vastly-but by the bye, I do not think he is much of an invalid; I suspect, though Mortimer does not hint so much, that he has some stronger motive than health."-"What can be stronger?" said Fanny. "Oh, don't you remember that the Spectator somewhere says, if a man does not pick up a pin with rapture that has fallen from his mistress, he knows not what it is to love."- -"I do not remember it," said Fanny, though I have often read the Spectator."

Spectator.""It is there, I assure you, though I have read but a few volumes; aunt never will let us read; it bends the neck, she says, injures the sight, and by bending the head, injures both the lungs and the digestive powers of the stomach; so I only catch a few ⚫lines now and then when my hair is dressing." Fanny was all surprise, and Lucy exclaimed, "I would not be your aunt's niece for the whole world."

"Well," said Miss Volatile, a little piqued, "I must go and see about a house; he would not breathe in such hovels as they let here. Now I think of it, it is better he should not see new faces; you know you can confine your walk to your own gravel for a few days, till he has settled the hours he will walk, and then you may easily avoid him."-" Oh," said Pneumanee, Fanny can have no reason for avoiding any body, though she may have a great.

B 5

great objection to unnecessarily obtruding herself."-"True, true," she said; “well, I will go; and as I return, I will tell you what I have done."

"Is it possible, Pneumanee," said Fanny," that Miss Volatile meant to insinuate that Lord R. was coming here to wait upon her ?"" Certainly, my dear, and I know how little grounds she has for such an idea: but to a vain and frivolous woman, nothing is too trifling to encourage and animate her hopes. Herself being the object of all her thoughts and actions, she forgets that she forms not the same predominant interest in every breast she wishes to inspire with it. Lord R. is really unwell, and will be more averse to seeing company than she is aware of; your behaviour, my dear Fanny, was natural and proper, and I hope I shall never discover any thing artificial in all your conduct."-" Whenever you do,

my

my dear Pneumanée," said Fanny, gaily, "crush it at once; you shall never find me obstinate or ungrateful; and under such endearing correction. as yours, I must be one of the happiest and best creatures in the world.""Alas! my dear Fanny," said Pneumanee, "we must not be too sanguine

upon that head. The great Disposer

of events, whose wisdom it becomes us not to dispute, has established this. world as a state of probation; he has formed his creatures imperfect, that they may, by diligence and exertion, qualify themselves for a much higher degree of felicity. A great orator has elegantly asked, 'Which of us can present, for omniscient examination, a pure, unspotted, and faultless course? but may we not humbly expect that the great Author of our being will hold up the volume of our lives, and will regard the general scope of them.