"court, all worthy and good as he is, "while her affections are another's."

"Your mother's conduct," replied Mrs. Evans, "has fhewn her decided "opinion upon fuch a queftion; nor "has the ever found reafon to regret "the preference which has made her "the wife of the worthieft of men. "Yet, if in the prefent conflict of Mifs "Powerscourt's paffions I could hope "that my warning voice might be heard, "I would entreat her to confider, whe"ther, fince her attachment is not the "refult of long acquaintance and im"partial obfervation, but the tranfient "start of fudden preference, it be not "at leaft poffible that her father's plan "for her happiness may be the most eligible. She can never now have an " opportunity of knowing lord Mon"teith's real difpofition previous to the "marriage ceremony. The cautious "lover

"C

H3

"lover will difclofe nothing which is

difagreeable, where he ftudies to re"commend himfelf to favour; and what "can fhe learn from the vague, or per"haps interested, communications of "others? Charge her then, my dear "Lucy, in your moments of endear"ment and privacy; if your Geral"dine's happiness be dear to you, charge "her to reflect on Henry's known vir"tues, his modeft diffidence, ingenu<s ous gratitude, and gentle, yet generous difpofition: Afk her, if thefe are "not the qualities which must insure happiness, and warn her not to mistake "a tranfient liking for an infurmount"able attachment."

65

Mifs Evans burst into tears at her mother's pathetic injunction, and promised obedience,

CHAP. X.

True dignity is his, whofe tranquil mind

Virtue has rais'd above the things below; Who, every hope and fear to heaven refign'd, Shrinks not, though Fortune aim her deadliest blow. BEATTIE,

WHILE Youth, with democratic violence, pulls down Reason from her fovereign feat, and commits the helm to a rebel rout of paffions; Age, finding these riotous principles quiet and manageable in his own particular territories, fuppofes it easy for others to keep them. in equal fubjection, and affirms, that the abfolute unlimited monarchy of the cidevant princess is not only the best mode of government, but actually the most feafible. It is not wonderful that Youth should deny the power of thofe reftric sive principles which time and experiH 4

ence

ence gradually introduce; but certainly Age might remember the fentiments that it once felt.

The above obfervation, though profoundly true in general, is, I confefs, irrelevant to the cafe before us; for fir William Powerscourt had exactly the fame opinion of love at the time I am. treating of, as he had forty years before; and Mrs. Evans was of fo fingu lar a tafte, and had fo thorough a contempt for a "fet of features and complexion," that, like Defdemona, fhe faw her husband's "features in his mind;" for when the felected Mr. Evans, who had no perfonal graces to boaft of, fhe not only encountered embarraffed circumstances, but displeased her relations by rejecting a rich and hand fome, but abandoned admirer.

A few days after the events related in my preceding Chapter had taken

place,

place, fir William's bailiff begged his Honor's leave to tell him fomething that made him unhappy. It was, that he had twice feen a very fine gentle man whif pering with Mrs. Bridget in Ellis's temple, in the dark hour. The groom, he added, feemed to know fomething about it, for he laughed, and faid Bridget had got a London fweetheart; but Roger fomehow thought, though he knew that fecond-handed gentlemen in London dreffed as fine as their mafters, that this looked to be another guife kind of body. Sir William thanked Roger for his fidelity, fhook his head, and obferved that the world grew worfe and worse every hour; to which obfervation Roger, who was of the fame age with his mafter, cordially agreed.

Previous to these communications of faithful Roger, fir William had felt a confiderable fhare of uneafiness. He

H 5.

recol