was impoffible for him to think otherwife; for all his young friends declared him a happy fellow, and his courtly acquaintance pronounced his lady to be the most divine creature ever seen. It was astonishing, they faid, how the could acquire fuch an air of high ton in her fecluded fituation; and ftill more wonderful, that the refplendent fame of the fair reclufe had not pervaded the rural fhades by which she was furrounded. "Your taste in beauty, my lord," they added, "is perfectly accurate, and "the world is infinitely obliged to you "for introducing this paragon to its "adoration"

His lordship always went home in raptures from fuch converfation; but his lady was either gone out with a party, or the prefence of his noble relations qualified his tranfports, and convinced him that one angel cannot pro

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tect the joys of the domeftic paradife, if fpirits malign over-leap the facred inclofure. The hours intended to be devoted to the endearing charities of private life were most commonly ufurped by high dispute and four contradiction, to which the softening obfervations of the countess could not always give the air of fportive raillery. Lady Arabella's pofitive refufal to attend a public breakfaft given by one of her brother's greatest intimates, and to which he had thoughtlefsly engaged his female inmates without previously confulting lady Madelina, disconcerted the earl fo much, that he determined even to give up the pleafures of London, and to betake hinself to the wild shores of Loch Lomond, rather than continue where he could not be mafter of his own actions. To his loud complaints against feminine perverseness, his lady vainly attempted to oppofe her

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obfervation, that though lady Arabella's refufal to go had rather an air of pertinacity, it merely reftricted her own conduct, and could by no means be conftrued into an attempt to control his perfect liberty. The truth was, lord Monteith was as defirous of governing as his fifter was unwilling to obey; and his querulous hatred of restriction led him to fcrutinize every word, look, and action, which feemed to militate against the wifdom of his decifions and the freedom of his conduct. Lady Arabella's refufal to go to the breakfatt had been aggravated by fome reflections on the inviter's rudeness in not returning her curtefy at Ranelagh; to which lady Madelina added, that a neglect of politeness was the true criterion by which a plebeian family might always be discovered. His lordship fo bitterly refented this farcafm, that, regardless of

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the fair fame of the titled Macdonalds now committed to his charge, he refolved to convince the world that peers of the realm may be as unpolite as commoners; and though lady Madelina and her niece talked of removing to a villa near Richmond in about a month, he determined not to endure the tempo. rary thraldom, but immediately to emancipate himself from their fetters, by fetting out for Monteith; and, with the inconsistency which frequently marked his character, he appointed the very morning fixed for his friend's public breakfast for his own departure.

Lady Monteith's heart, as I have already hinted, was not wedded to the amusements of London. Her natural taste and early habits did not teach her to start affrighted at the name of foli tude, nor did the recollection of mild colloquial pleasures induce her to regret

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the fociety fhe was going to leave. the contrary, had the manner been better fuited to the project, the proposal of vifiting her lord's hereditary poffeffions would have met her entire approbation. She would have rejoiced in the prospect of renewing thofe ties of gratitude and generofity, which had been long diffolved; and the hope of reanimating a forlorn defert region would have afforded equal gratification to her native benevolence and inherent love of diftinction. But while fhe recollected her lord's often repeated preference of London and abhorrence of Scotland, The regretted that pique and difpleasure, not duty and conviction, had wrought the defired change. Ruminating with deep regret on thofe traits of her hufband's character, of which this incident gave her a full view, fhe fhuddered at the idea of her own mifery, if the fatal