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Delv. [offended] Whoever, Lady Honoria, is fit for Delvill Castle, must be fit for every other place; tho' every other place may by no means be fit for him.

Lady Hon. O yes, Sir, every poffible place will be fit for him, if he can once bear with that. Don't you think so, Dr. Lyfter?

Dr. Lyf. Why, when a man has the honor to fee your Ladyfhip, he is apt to think too much of the person to care about the place.

Lady Hon. Come, I begin to have fome hopes of you, for I fee for a Doctor, you really have a very pretty notion of a compliment. Only you have one great fault ftill; you look the whole time, as if you faid it for a joke.

Dr. Lyf. Why in fact, Madam, when a man has been a plain dealer both in word and look for fifty years, 'tis expect ing too quick a reformation to demand ductility of voice and eye from him at a blow. However give me a little time and a little encouragement, and with fuch a tutorefs, 'twill be hard, if I do not in a few leffons, learn the right method of feafoning a fimper, and the newest fashion of twifting words. from their meaning.

Lady Hon. But pray, Sir, always remember on thefe occafions to look ferious. Nothing fets off a compliment fo much as a long face. If you are tempted to an unfeafonable laugh, think of Delvill Caftle; 'tis an expedient I commonly make use of myself, when I am afraid of being too frolicfome; and it always fucceeds, for the very thought of it gives me the head-ache in a moment. I wonder Mr. Delvill, you keep your health fo good; after living in that horrible place fo long. I have expected to hear of your death at the end of every fummer, and I affure you, I was once very near buying mourning.

Del. The eftate which defcends to a man from his anceftors, Lady Honoria, will feldom be apt to injure his health, if he is confcious of committing no mifdemeanor which has degraded their memory.

Lady Hon. [in a low voice to Cecilia.] How vaftly odious is this new father of yours! What could ever induce you to give up your charming eftate for the fake of coming into his fufty old family? I would really advise you to have your marriage annulled. You know, you have only to take an oath› that you were forcibly run away with; and as you are an

beirefs and the Delvills are all fo violent, it will eafily be be lieved. And then, as foon as you are at liberty, I would advife you to marry my little Lord Derford.

Gec. Would you only then have me regain my freedom in order to part with it?

Lady Hon. Certainly, for you can do nothing at all without being married. A fingle woman is a thousand times more fhackled than a wife; for he is accountable to every body and a wife you know has nothing to do but just to manage her husband.

Cec. fmiling] And that you confider as a trifle!

Lady Hon. Yes, if you do but marry a man you don't care for.

Cec. You are right then, indeed, to recommend to me my Lord Derford.

he

Lady Hon. O yes, he will make the prettielt hufband in the world; you may fly about yourself as wild as a lark, and keep him the whole time as tame as a jack daw. And tho may complain of you to your friends, he will never have the courage to find fault to your face. But as to Mortimer, you will not be able to govern him as long as you live; for the moment you have put him upon the fret, you will fall into the dumps yourfelf, hold out your hand to him and lofing the opportunity of gaining fome material point, make up with him at the first foft word.

Cec. You think then the quarrel more amuling than the re

Conciliation.

Lady Hon. O, a thoufand times! for while you are quar reling, you may fay any thing and demand any thing, but when you are reconciled, you ought to behave pretty, and feem contented.

Cec. If any gentleman has any pretenficns to your ladyship, he must be made very happy indeed to hear your principles. Lady Hon. O, it would not fignify at all; for one's fathers and uncles and fuch people always make connections for one ; and not a foul thinks of our principles till they find them out by our conduct; and nobody can poffibly find them out till we are married, for they give us no power beforehand. know nothing of us in the world, while we are fingle but how we can dance a minuet or play a lesson upon the harpficord.

The men

Del. And what elfe need a young lady of rank desire to

be known for? Your ladyfhip furely would not have her des grade herself by studying like an artist or profeffør.

Lady Hon. O, no Sir, I would not have her study at all; its mighty well for children; but really after fixteen, and when one is come out, one has quite fatigue enough in dreffing and going to public places and ordering new things, without all the torment of first and fecond position, and E upon the fft line, and F upon the firft fpace.

Del. But pardon me, madam, for hinting that a young lady of condition, who has a proper fenfe of her dignity, cannot be seen too rarely or known too little.

Lady Hon. O, but I hate dignity for it is the dulleft thing in the world, I have always thought, Sir, it was owing to that you was fo little amufing-really I beg your pardon, Sir, I meant to fay fo little talkative.

Del. I can eafily believe your ladyship spoke haftily; for it will hardly be fuppofed that a person of my family came into the world for the purpofe of amufing it.

Lady Hon. O, no, Sir, nobody, I am fure, ever knew you to have fuch a thought. [Turning to Cecilia with a low voice.] You cannot imagin, my dear Mrs. Mortimer, how I deteft this old coufin of mine! Now, pray tell me honeftly, if you don't hate him yourself.

Cec. I hope, Madam, you have no reafon to hate him.

Lady Hon. La, how you are always upon your guard! If I were half as cautious, I fhould die of the vapors in a month: the only thing that keeps me at all alive, is now and then making people angry for the folks at our house let me go out fo feldom and then fend me with fuch ftupid company, that giving them a little torment is really the only entertainment I have. O but I had almoft forgot to tell you a most delightful thing!

Cec. What is it?

Lady Hon. Why you must know I have the greatest hopes in the world that my father will quarrel with old Mr. Delvill! Cec. And is that fuch a delightful thing?

Lady Hon. O yes: I have lived upon the very idea this fortnight; for then you know, they'll both be in a paffion and I fhall fee which of them looks frightfulleft.

Mortimer Del. When lady Honoria talks afide, I always fufpect fome mifchief.

Lady Hon. No, no, I was only congratulating Mrs. Mor timer about her marriage. Tho really upon fecond thoughts, I don't know but I ought to condole with her, for I have long been convinced she has a prodigious antipathy to you. I faw it the whole time I was at Delvill Caftle, where the used to change color at the very found of your name; a symptom I never perceived when I talked to her of Lord Derford, who would certainly have made her a thousand times better husband. Del. If you mean on account of his title, Lady Honoria, your ladyship must be ftrangely forgetful of the connections of your family; for Mortimer after the death of his uncle, and myself, must inevitably inherit a title far more honorable, than any which can be offered by a new sprung up family, like my Lord Erinof's.

Lady Hon. Yes, Sir; but then you know she would have kept her eftate, which would have been a vaftly better thing than an old pedigree of new relations. Befides, I don't find that any body cares for the noble blood of the Delvills but themselves and if fhe had kept her fortune, every body I fancy would have cared for that.

Del. Every body then, must be highly mercenary and ignoble, or the blood of an ancient and honorable houfe, would be thought contaminated by the most distant hint of so degrading a comparison.

Lady Hon. Dear Sir, what fhould we all do with birth if it was not for wealth? It would neither take us to Ranelagh nor the Opera; nor buy us caps nor wigs, nor fupply us with din-. ners nor bouquets.

Del. Caps and wigs, dinners and bouquets! Your ladyfhip's. eftimate of wealth is extremely minute indeed!

Lady Hon. Why you know, Sir, as to caps and wigs, they are very serious things, for we fhould look mighty droll figures to go about bareheaded; and as to dinners, how would the Delvills have lafted all these thousand centuries, if they bad difdained eating them?

Del. Whatever may be your ladyship's fatisfaction in depreciating a house that has the honor of being nearly allied to your own, you will not, I hope at least inftruct this lady [turning to Cecilia] to imbibe a fimilar contempt of its antiquity and dignity.

Mort. Del. This lady, by becoming one of it, will at leaft

fecure us from the danger that fuch contempt will fpread fure ther.

Cec. Let me only be as fecure from exciting, as I am from feeling, contempt, and I can wish no more.

Dr. Lyf. Good and excellent young lady; the first of bleffings indeed is yours in the temperance of your own mind. When you began your career in life, you appeared to us fhortfighted mortals, to poffefs more than your fhare of good things. Such a union of riches, beauty, independence, talents, education, virtue, feemed a monopoly to raife general envy and difcontent; but mark with what exactnefs the good and the bad is ever balanced! You have had a thousand forrows to which those who have looked up to you, have been total strangers, and which balance all your advantages for happiness. There is a levelling principle in the world, at war with preeminence, which finally puts us all upon a footing.

Del. Not quite, I think an ancient and refpectable familyLady Hon. With a handsome income and high life gives one a mighty chance for happiness. Don't you think fo Mortimer ? Mort. Del. I do, indeed; but add, a connection with an amiable woman, and I think the chances for happiness are more than doubled.

I.

Dr. Lyf. Right, Mortimer; we are well agreed.

ADDITIONAL LESSONS.

DIRECTIONS HOW TO SPEND OUR TIME.

WE all of us complain of the shortness of time, faith

Seneca, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives, fays he, are spent either in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do; we are always complaining our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end to them. That noble philofopher has defcribed our inconfiftency with ourselves in this particular, by all thofe various turns of expreffion and thought which are peculiar to his writings.

2. I often confider mankind as wholly inconfiftent with itfelf in a point that bears fome affinity to the former. Though we feem grieved at the fhortnefs of life in general, we are wishing every period of it at an end. The minor longs to be at age, then to be a man of business, then to make up an ef

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