vinced she would of her own accord refuse to go." "Now, madam," said Mrs Ellison, "you are to answer for yourself; and I will for your husband, that, if you have a desire to go, he will not refuse you."

"I hope, madam," answered Amelia, with great gravity, "I shall never desire to go to any place contrary to Mr Booth's inclinations."

"Did ever mortal hear the like ?" said Mrs Ellison: " you are enough to spoil the best hus band in the universe. Inclinations! what, is a woman to be governed then by her husband's inclinations, though they are ever so unreasonable ?"

"Pardon me, madam," said Amelia," I will not suppose Mr Booth's inclinations ever can be unreasonable. I am very much obliged to you for the offer you have made me; but I beg you will not mention it more: for, after what Mr Booth hath declared, if Ranelagh was a heaven upon earth, I would refuse to go to it."

I thank you, my dear," cries Booth; "I do assure you, you oblige me beyond my power of expression by what you say; but I will endeavour to shew you both my sensibility of such goodness, and my lasting gratitude for it."

cious place it is. Paradise itself can hardly be equal to it."

"I beg you will excuse me, madam," said Amelia; " nay, I entreat you will ask me no more: for be assured I must and will refuseDo let me desire you to give the ticket to poor Mrs Bennet, I believe it would greatly oblige her."

"Pardon me, madam,' said Mrs Ellison. 'If you will not accept of it, I am not so distressed for want of company as to go to such a public place with all sort of people neither. I am always very glad to see Mrs Bennet at my own house, because I look upon her as a very good sort of woman; but I don't chuse to be seen with such people in public places."

Amelia expressed some little indignation at this last speech, which she declared to be entirely beyond her comprehension; and soon afterwards Mrs Ellison, finding all her efforts to prevail on Amelia were ineffectual, took her leave, giving Mr Booth two or three sarcastical words, and a much more sarcastical look, at her departure.

CHAP. VI.

Amelia's conduct exceptionable.

"Pardon me, good Mrs Ellison," said Booth. "As my wife is so good to acquiesce without knowing my reasons, I am not, I think, obliged to assign them to any other person."

"Well," cries Mrs Ellison, " if I had been told this, I would not have believed it. What! refuse your lady an innocent diversion, and that too when you have not the pretence to say it would cost you a farthing?"

"Why will you say any more on this subject, dear madam?" cries Amelia; "all diversions are to me matters of such indifference, that the bare inclinations of any one for whom I have the least value, would at all times turn the balance of mine. I am sure then, after what Mr Booth hath said"

"My dear," cries he, taking her up hastily, "I sincerely ask your pardon, I spoke inadvertently, and in a passion.-I never once thought of controuling you-nor ever would.-Nay, I said in the same breath you would not go; and upon my honour I meant nothing more.'

"My dear," said she, "you have no need of making any apology. I am not in the least of fended, and am convinced you will never deny me what I shall desire."

"Try him, try him, madam," cries Mrs Ellison; "I will be judged by all the women in town, if it is possible for a wife to ask her husband anything more reasonable. You cannot conceive what a sweet, charming, elegant, deli

BOOTH and his wife being left alone, a solemn silence prevailed during a few minutes. At last Amelia, who though a good, was yet a human creature, said to her husband, "Pray, my dear, do inform me, what could put you into so great a passion when Mrs Ellison first offered me the tickets for this masquerade."

"I had rather you would not ask me," said Booth. "You have obliged me greatly in your ready acquiescence with my desire, and you will add greatly to the obligation by not inquiring the reason of it. This you may depend upon, Amelia, that your good and happiness are the great objects of all my wishes, and the end I propose in all my actions. This view alone could tempt me to refuse you anything, or to conceal anything from you."

"I will appeal to yourself," answered she, "whether this be not using me too much like a child, and whether I can possibly help being a little offended at it."

"Not in the least," replied he. "I use you only with the tenderness of a friend. I would only endeavour to conceal that from you which I think would give you uneasiness if you knew. These are called the pious frauds of friendship." "I detest all fraud," says she; "and pious is too good an epithet to be joined to so odious a word. You have often, you know, tried these frauds with no better effect than to teaze and torment me. You cannot imagine, my dear, but that I must have a violent desire to know the reason of words, which, I own, I never expected

to have heard; and the more you have shewn a reluctance to tell me, the more eagerly I have longed to know. Nor can this be called a vain curiosity, since I seem so much interested in this affair. If after all this you still insist on keeping the secret, I will convince you I am not ignorant of the duty of a wife, by my obedience; but I cannot help telling you at the same time, you will make me one of the most miserable of women."

"That is," cries he, "in other words, my dear Emily, to say, I will be contented without the secret, but I am resolved to know it nevertheless."

"Nay, if you say so," cries she, " I am convinced you will tell me-Positively, dear Billy, I must and will know."

66

Why then, positively," says Booth, "I will tell you. And I think I shall then shew you, that however well you may know the duty of a wife, I am not always able to behave like a husband. In a word, then, my dear, the secret is no more than this; I am unwilling you should receive any more presents from my lord."

"Mercy upon me!" cries she, with all the marks of astonishment-" what! a masquerade ticket!"

"Yes, my dear," cries he, "that is perhaps the very worst and most dangerous of all. Few men make presents of those tickets to ladies, without intending to meet them at the place. And what do we know of your companion? To be sincere with you, I have not liked her behaviour for some time. What might be the consequence of going with such a woman to such a place, to meet such a person, I tremble to think! And now, my dear, I have told you my reason of refusing her offer with some little vehemence, and I think I need explain myself no farther." "You need not indeed, sir," answered she. "Good Heavens! did I ever expect to hear this! I can appeal to Heaven, nay, I will appeal to yourself, Mr Booth, if I have ever done any thing to deserve such a suspicion. If ever any action of mine, nay, if ever any thought had stained the innocence of my soul, I could be contented."

"How cruelly do you mistake me!" said Booth-"what suspicion have I ever shewn?" "Can you ask it," answered she, "after what you have just now declared?"

66

"If I have declared any suspicion of you," replied he, or if I ever entertained a thought leading that way, may the worst of evils that ever afflicted human nature attend me! I know the pure innocence of that tender bosom; I do know it, my lovely angel, and adore it. The snares which might be laid for that innocence, were alone the cause of my apprehension. I feared what a wicked and voluptuous man, resolved to sacrifice every thing to the gratification of a sensual appetite with the most delicious repast, might attempt. If ever I injured the un

spotted whiteness of thy virtue in my imagination, may hell—-”

"Do not terrify me," cries she, interrupting him, " with such imprecations. O, Mr Booth, Mr Booth, you must well know that a woman's virtue is always her sufficient guard. No husband, without suspecting that, can suspect any danger from those snares you mention;—and why, if you are liable to take such things into your head, may not your suspicion fall on me as well as on any other? for sure nothing was ever more unjust, I will not say ungrateful, than the suspicions which you have bestowed on his lordship. I do solemnly declare, in all the times I have seen the poor man, he hath never once offered the least forwardness. His behaviour hath been polite indeed, but rather remarkably distant than otherwise. Particularly when we played at cards together, I don't remember he spoke ten words to me all the evening; and when I was at his house, though he shewed the greatest fondness imaginable to the children, he took so little notice of me, that a vain woman would have been very little pleased with him; and if he gave them many presents, he never offered me one. The first indeed which he ever offered me was that which in that kind manner, you, forced me to refuse.'

"All this may be only the effect of art," said Booth. "I am convinced he doth, nay, I am convinced he must, like you; and my good friend James, who perfectly well knows the world, told me, that his lordship's character was that of the most profuse in his pleasures with women; nay, what said Mrs James this very evening? His lordship is extremely generous-where he likes.' I shall never forget the sneer with which she spoke those last words."

"I am convinced they injure him," cries Amelia. "As for Mrs James, she was always given to be censorious; I remarked it in her long ago as her greatest fault. And as for the Colonel, I believe he may find faults enow of this kind in his own bosom, without searching after them among his neighbours. I am sure he hath the most impudent look of all the men I know; and I solemnly declare, the very last time he was here, he put me out of countenance more than once.

"Colonel James," answered Booth, "may have his faults very probably. I do not look on him as a saint, nor do I believe he desires I should; but what interest could he have in abusing this lord's character to me? or why should I question his truth, when he assured me that my lord had never done any act of beneficence in his life, but for the sake of some woman whom he lusted after?"

"Then I myself can confute him,” replied Amelia: "for besides his services to you, which, for the future, I shall wish to forget, and his kindness to my little babes, how inconsistent is the character which James gives of him with

his lordship's behaviour to his own nephew and niece, whose extreme fondness of their uncle sufficiently proclaims his goodness to them? I need not mention all that I have heard from Mrs Ellison, every word of which I believe: for I have great reason to think, notwithstanding some little levity, which, to give her her due, she sees and condemns in herself, she is a very good sort of woman."

"Well, my dear," cries Booth, "I may have been deceived, and I heartily hope I am so; but in cases of this nature, it is always good to be on the surest side; for, as Congreve says,

The wise too jealous are; fools too secure.'

Here Amelia burst into tears, upon which Booth immediately caught her in his arms, and endeavoured to comfort her. Passion, however, for a while obstructed her speech, and at last she cried out,-" O, Mr Booth, can I bear to hear the word jealousy from your mouth?" "Why, my love," said Booth, "will you so fatally misunderstand my meaning? how often shall I protest that it is not of you, but of him that I was jealous? If you could look into my breast, and there read all the most secret thoughts of my heart, you would not see one faint idea to your dishonour."

"I don't understand you, my dear," said she, "so much as I am afraid you misunderstand yourself. What is it you fear?-you mention not force, but snares. Is not this to confess, at least, that you have some doubt of my understanding? Do you then really imagine me so weak as to be cheated of my virtue? Am I to be deceived into an affection for a man before I perceive the least inward hint of my danger? No, Mr Booth; believe me, a woman must be a fool indeed who can have in earnest such an excuse for her actions. I have not, I think, any very high opinion of my judgment; but so far I shall rely upon it, that no man breathing could have any such designs as you have apprehended, without my immediately seeing them; and how I should then act, I hope my whole conduct to you hath sufficiently declared."

"Well, my dear," cries Booth, "I beg you will mention it no more, if possible forget it. I hope, nay, I believe, I have been in the wrong; pray forgive me."

"I will, I do forgive you, my dear," said she, "if forgiveness be a proper word for one, whom you have rather made miserable than angry; but let me entreat you to banish for ever all such suspicions from your mind. I hope Mrs Ellison hath not discovered the real cause of your passion; but, poor woman, if she had, I am convinced it would go no farther. O heavens! I would not for the world it should reach his lordship's ears. You would lose the best friend that ever man had. Nay, I would not for his own sake, poor man! for I really believe it would affect him greatly; and I must, I cannot help

having an esteem for so much goodness. An esteem which, by this dear hand," said she, taking Booth's hand and kissing it, no man alive shall ever obtain by making love to me." Booth caught her in his arms, and tenderly embraced her. After which the reconciliation soon became complete; and Booth, in the contemplation of his happiness, entirely buried all his jealous thoughts.

CHAP. VII.

A Chapter in which there is much learning.

THE next morning, whilst Booth was gone to take his morning-walk, Amelia went down into Mrs Ellison's apartment, where, though she was received with great civility, yet she found that lady was not at all pleased with Mr Booth; and by some hints which dropped from her in conversation, Amelia very greatly apprehended that Mrs Ellison had too much suspicion of her hus band's real uneasiness. For that lady declared very openly, she could not help perceiving what sort of a man Mr Booth was; "And though I have the greatest regard for you, madam, in the world," said she," yet I think myself in honour obliged not to impose on his lordship, who, I know very well, hath conceived his greatest liking to the captain on my telling him that he was the best husband in the world."

Amelia's fears gave her much disturbance, and when her husband returned, she acquainted him with them; upon which occasion, as it was natural, she resumed a little the topic of their former discourse; nor could she help casting, though in very gentle terms, some slight blame on Booth, for having entertained a suspicion, which, she said, might, in its consequence, prove their ruin, and occasion the loss of his lordship's friendship.

Booth became highly affected with what his wife said, and the more as he had just received a note from Colonel James, informing him, that the Colonel had heard of a vacant company in the regiment which Booth had mentioned to him, and that he had been with his lordship about it, who had promised to use his utmost interest to obtain him the command.

The poor man now expressed the utmost concern for his yesterday's behaviour; said, he believed the devil had taken possession of him; and concluded with crying out, "Sure I was born, my dearest creature, to be your torment."

Amelia no sooner saw her husband's distress, than she instantly forbore whatever might seem likely to aggravate it, and applied herself, with all her power, to comfort him. "If you will give me leave to offer my advice, my dearest soul," said she, "I think all might yet be remedied. I think you know me too well, to suspect that the desire of diversion should induce me to mention what I am now going to propose. And

in that confidence, I will ask you to let me accept my lord's and Mrs Ellison's offer, and go to the masquerade. No matter how little while I stay there: if you desire it, I will not be an hour from you. I can make an hundred excuses to return home, or tell a real truth, and say I am wearied with the place. The bare going will cure every thing."

Amelia had no sooner done speaking, than Booth immediately approved her advice, and readily gave his consent. He could not, however, help saying, that the shorter her stay was there, the more agreeable it would be to him: "for you know, my dear," said he, "I would never willingly be a moment out of your sight.”

In the afternoon Amelia sent to invite Mrs Ellison to a dish of tea; and Booth undertook to laugh off all that had past yesterday; in which attempt, the abundant good humour of that lady gave him great hopes of success.

Mrs Bennet came that afternoon to make a visit, and was almost an hour with Booth and Amelia, before the entry of Mrs Ellison.

Mr Booth had hitherto rather disliked this young lady, and had wondered at the pleasure which Amelia declared she took in her company. This afternoon, however, he changed his opinion, and liked her almost as much as his wife had done. She did indeed behave at this time with more than ordinary gaiety; and good humour gave a glow to her countenance that set off her features, which were very pretty, to the best advantage, and lessened the deadness that had usually appeared in her complexion.

But if Booth was now pleased with Mrs Bennet, Amelia was still more pleased with her than ever. For when their discourse turned on love, Amelia discovered that her new friend had all the same sentiments on that subject with herself. In the course of their conversation, Booth gave Mrs Bennet a hint of wishing her a good husband, upon which both the ladies declaimed against second marriages with equal vehemence. Upon this occasion, Booth and his wife discovered a talent in their visitant, to which they had been before entirely strangers, and for which they both greatly admired her; and this was, that the lady was a good scholar, in which indeed she had the advantage of poor Amelia, whose reading was confined to English plays, and poetry; besides which, I think, she had conversed only with the divinity of the great and learned Dr Barrow, and with the histories of the excellent Bishop Burnet.

Amelia delivered herself on the subject of second marriages with much eloquence and great good sense; but when Mrs Bennet came to give her opinion, she spoke in the following manner: "I shall not enter into the question concerning the legality of bigamy. Our laws certainly allow it, and so, I think, doth our religion. We are now debating on the indecency of it; and in this light, I own myself as strenuous an advocate

against it, as any Roman matron would have been in those ages of the commonwealth when it was held to be infamous. For my own part, how great a paradox soever my opinion may seem, I solemnly declare, I see but little difference between having two husbands at one time, and at several times; and of this I am very confident, that the same degree of love for a first husband, which preserves a woman in the one case, will preserve her in the other. There is one argument, which I scarce know how to deliver before you, sir; but-if a woman hath lived with her first husband without having children, I think it unpardonable in her to carry barrenness into a second family. On the contrary, if she hath children by her first husband, to give them a second father is still more unpardonable."

"But suppose, madam," cries Booth, interrupting her, with a smile," she should have had children by her first husband, and have lost them ?"

"That is a case," answered she with a sigh, "which I did not desire to think of, and I must own it the most favourable light in which a second marriage can be seen. But the Scriptures, as Petrarch observes, rather suffer them than commend them; and St Jerome speaks against them with the utmost bitterness."-" I remember," cries Booth, (who was willing either to shew his learning, or to draw out the lady's,) "a very wise law of Charondas, the famous lawgiver of Thurium, by which men, who married a second time, were removed from all public councils; for it was scarce reasonable to suppose, that he who was so great a fool in his own family, should be wise in public affairs. And though second marriages were permitted among the Romans, yet they were at the same time discouraged; and those Roman widows who refused them, were held in high esteem, and honoured with what Valerius Maximus calls the Corona Pudicitiæ. In the noble family of Camilli, there was not, in many ages, a single instance of this, which Martial calls adultery:

expressed great admiration of the lady's learning; upon which she said, it was all the fortune given her by her father, and all the dower left her by her husband; "And sometimes," said she, "I am inclined to think I enjoy more pleasure from it, than if they had bestowed on me what the world would in general call more valuable." She then took occasion from the surprise which Booth had affected to conceive at her repeating Latin with so good a grace, to comment on that great absurdity (for so she termed it) of excluding women from learning; for which they were equally qualified with the men, and in which so many had made so notable a proficiency; for a proof of which, she mentioned Madam Dacier, and many others.

Though both Booth and Amelia outwardly concurred with her sentiments, it may be a question whether they did not assent rather out of complaisance, than from their real judgment.

CHAP. VIII.

choly. This made Amelia very uneasy, as she concluded she had guessed the cause of her vexation. In which opinion she was the more confirmed, from certain looks of no very pleasant kind, which Mrs Bennet now and then cast on Mrs Ellison, and the more than ordinary concern that appeared in the former lady's countenance, whenever the masquerade was mentioned, and which unfortunately was the principal topic of their discourse: for Mrs Ellison gave a very elaborate description of the extreme beauty of the place, and elegance of the diversion.

When Mrs Bennet was departed, Amelia could not help again soliciting Mrs Ellison for another ticket, declaring she was certain Mrs Bennet had a great inclination to go with them; but Mrs Ellison again excused herself from asking it of his lordship. " Besides, madam," says she, "if I would go thither with Mrs Bennet, which, I own to you, I don't chuse, as she is a person whom nobody knows, I very much doubt whether she herself would like it: for she is a woman of a very unaccountable turn. All her de light lies in books; and as for public diversions,

Ellison.

MRS ELLISON made her entrance at the end of the preceding discourse. At her first appearance she put on an unusual degree of formality and reserve; but when Amelia had acquainted her that she designed to accept the favour intended her, she soon began to alter the gravity of her muscles, and presently fell in with that ridicule which Booth thought proper to throw on his yesterday's behaviour.

The conversation now became very lively and pleasant, in which Booth, having mentioned the discourse that passed in the last chapter, and having greatly complimented Mrs Bennet's speech on that occasion, Mrs Ellison, who was as strenuous an advocate on the other side, began to rally that lady extremely, declaring it was a certain sign she intended to marry again soon. "Married ladies," cries she, " I believe, some times think themselves in earnest in such declarations, though they are oftener perhaps meant as compliments to their husbands; but when widows exclaim loudly against second marriages, I would always lay a wager, that the man, if not the wedding-day, is absolutely fixed on.

Mrs Bennet made very little answer to this sarcasm. Indeed she had scarce opened her lips from the time of Mrs Ellison's coming into the room, and had grown particularly grave at the

them."

“What then,” said Amelia, "could occasion all that gravity from the moment the masquerade was mentioned ?"

"As to that," answered the other, “ there is no guessing. You have seen her altogether as grave before now. She hath had these fits of gravity at times ever since the death of her husband."

“ Poor creature” cries Amelia, I heartily pity her; for she must certainly suffer a great deal on these occasions. I declare I have taken a strange fancy to her."

"Perhaps you would not like her so well, if you knew her thoroughly," answered Mrs Ellison. "She is, upon the whole, but of a whimsical temper; and if you will take my opinion, you should not cultivate too much intimacy with her. I know you will never mention what I say; but she is like some pictures, which please best at a distance."

Amelia did not seem to agree with these sentiments, and she greatly importuned Mrs Ellison to be more explicit, but to no purpose; she continued to give only dark hints to Mrs Bennet's disadvantage; and if ever she let drop something a little too harsh, she failed not immediately to contradict herself, by throwing some gentle commendations into the other scale; so that her conduct appeared utterly unaccountable to

this to her being left out of the party, a matter which is often no small mortification to human pride, and in a whisper asked Mrs Ellison if she could not procure a third ticket; to which she received an absolute negative.

During the whole time of Mrs Bennet's stay, which was above an hour afterwards, she remained perfectly silent, and looked extremely melan

whether to conclude Mrs Ellison to be a friend or enemy to Mrs Bennet.

During this latter conversation, Booth was not in the room: for he had been summoned down stairs by the serjeant, who came to him with news from Murphy, whom he had met that evening, and who assured the serjeant, that if he was desirous of recovering the debt which he