cr my love; if

you are too late, I fhalf

"be miferable."

Lady Monteith had now, for the first time in her life, the painful task of apologizing for what the conceived to be a moral impropriety in the conduct of a perfon whom fhe tenderly loved. Unused to disguise, fhe faltered in her excufes, which, indeed, seemed rather to make the affair worfe than to improve it. She found every thing at the Morgans in ftate array; the entertainment was conducted with great decorum; and nothing but the lamented absence of lord Monteith feemed to render deficient the éclat of the fcene. To compenfate for the bridegroom's rudeness, the bride thought it her duty to exert herself with greater affiduity; but her attentions were ungraceful, her wit forced, and her laughter artificial. After having endured a moft irksome

evening.

evening fhe returned home, and found that the noble invalid had completely banished his tooth-ach and his chagrin, by witneffing the amusements of an ass

race.

Lady Monteith liftened with feeming intereft to the ludicrous accidents to which ruftic competition had given rise, and then ventured upon a gentle expoftulation on his abfenting himself from a scene which must have afforded him fuperior pleasure. Her defcription of the entertainment and the company made his lordship a convert to her opinion, and unfolicited he fet off the next morning to the Morgans, to make a perfonal apology for his abfence. found them fo unexpectedly agreeable, that on a flight invitation he spent the day with them, and returned home, not afhamed of his own caprice, but vexed that he had miffed the pleasantest party

He

that.

that had occurred fince his refidence in Caernarvonfhire. Not that he was any way to blame; his earlieft recollection did not furnish him with one inftance of his having acted wrong; the fault lay entirely in the unlucky Cupids and the painted card.

The season of the year of which I am now treating was May, a period when the country holds out its pleasures only to the ftudious, the industrious, and the contented. It is of all times the most infipid to the fportfman, who, being deprived of all chance of breaking his neck or blowing out his brains, is obliged to hurry up to town to avoid the puerility of gathering primroses, and listening to the cawing of rooks. Lord Monteith had already found his nuptial felicity lefs perfect than his expectations had conceived; but this, for the reafons I have above stated, could not be

from

from any error in his own behaviour, or any impropriety in his own judgment: nor did it proceed from the imperfections of his adorable Geraldine, who proved to be the angelic creature he had before fuppofed her: it was all owing to the odious country, to fir William's odd ways, and to the twaddling people whom he fuffered to vifit him. In London, he fhould undoubtedly enjoy the expected paradife; there his lovely girl must attract universal admiration; he fhould breathe another air, enjoy a different fociety, receive the congratulations of all his own friends; in fhort, he muft fet off for town immediately.

When, with many polite expreffions of regret for being obliged to fhorten his vifit at Powerfcourt, lord Monteith first acquainted fir William with the neceffity of his going up to town, the latter discovered great furprise that he should

choose

choose to go to that difagreeable place just when parliament was fo near breaking up, and that there was no more national business of importance to fettle. "This," faid he, "feems to be the

very time that you should take a trip

to Scotland, to examine the plans of "( your architects, to fet them to work, "and to get the foil smooth and ready "to plant next autumn. I am afraid, "my lord, you are not naturally fond "of a country life; but it is only be"cause you have never been used to "it. Get acquainted with your neigh"bours; confider the intereft which << you have in the scenes around you; "remember how much good you may "do in a fpot where you reign like a

little king, compared to what you can

"do in London, and you will foon be "as fond of Monteith as I am of << Powerscourt.”

The