such news as would make her look grave for something. The captain,' says he, has just huddled a lady into a chair, at the door of a bagnio near Spring Gardens.' He soon perceived, that this speech was received with emotions very different from those he intended to produce; and, therefore, added, that she need not, however, be jealous; for notwithstanding the manner in which he had related the incident, the lady was certainly a woman of character, as he instantly discovered by her mien and appearance.' This particular confirmed the suspicion it was intended to remove; and the doctor finding that he was not so good company as usual, took his leave, but was met at the door by the captain, who brought him back. His presence, however insignificant, imposed some restraint upon the rest of the company; and Sir James, with as good an appearance of jocularity as he could assume, asked the captain, what he had done with his wife.' The captain, with some irresolution, replied, that he had left her early in the morning at her father's; and that having made a point of waiting on her home, she sent word down that her cousin Meadows was indisposed, and had engaged her to breakfast.' The captain, who knew nothing of the anecdote that had been communicated by the doctor, judged by appearances that it was prudent thus indirectly to lie, by concealing the truth both from Sir James and his wife: he supposed, indeed, that Sir James would immediately inquire after his wife at her father's, and learn that she did not stay there to breakfast; but as it would not follow that they had been together, he left her to account for her absence as she thought fit, taking for granted that what he had concealed she also would conceal, for the same reasons; or if she did not, as he had affirmed nothing contrary to truth, he might pretend to have concealed it in jest. Sir James, as soon as he had received this intelligence, took his leave with some appearance of satisfaction, and was followed by the doctor. As soon as Mrs. Freeman and the captain were alone, she questioned him with great earnestness about the lady whom he had been seen to put into a chair. When he had heard that this incident had been related in the presence of Sir James, he was greatly alarmed lest Lady Forrest should increase his suspicions, by attempting to conceal that which, by a series of inquiry to which he was now stimulated, he would probably discover: he condemned this conduct in himself, and, as the most effectual means at once to quiet the mind of his wife and obtain her assistance, he told her all that had happened, and his apprehension of the consequences: he also urged her to go directly to Miss Meadows, by whom his account would be confirined, and of whom she might learn further intelligence of Sir James; and to find some way to acquaint Lady Forrest with her danger, and admonish her to conceal nothing. Mrs. Freeman was convinced of the captain's sincerity, not only by the advice which he urged her to give to Lady Forrest, by the consistency of the story and the manner in which he was affected. Her jealousy was changed into pity for her friend, and apprehension for her husband. She hasted to Miss Meadows, and learned that Sir James had inquired of the servant for his lady, and was told that she had been there early with Captain Freeman, but went away soon after him: she related to Miss Meadows all that had happened, and, thinking it at least possible that Sir James might not go directly home, she wrote the following letter to his lady: 6 MY DEAR LADY FORREST, Sir James . has suspicions which truth only can remove, and of which my indiscretion is the cause. If I had not concealed my desire of the captain's return, your design to disengage yourself from him, which I learn from Miss Meadows, would have been effected. Sir James breakfasted with me in the Haymarket; and has since called at your father's, from whence I write : he knows that your stay here was short, and has reason to believe the captain put you into a chair some hours afterwards at Spring-Gardens. I hope, therefore, my dear lady, that this will reach your hands time enough to prevent your concealing any thing. It would have been better if Sir James had known nothing, for then you would not have been suspected; but now he must know all, or you cannot be justified. Forgive the freedom with which I write, and believe me most affectionately 'P. S. I have ordered the bearer to say he came from Mrs. Fashion, the milliner.' This letter was given to a chairman, and he was ordered to say he brought it from the milliner's; because, if it should be known to come from Mrs. Freeman, and should fall by accident into Sir James's hands, his curiosity might prompt him to read it, and his jealousy to question the lady, without communicating the contents. SIR James being convinced that his lady and the captain had passed the morning at a bagnio, by the answer which he received at her father's, went directly home. His lady was just arrived before him, and had not recovered from the confusion and dread which seized her when she heard that Sir James came to town the night before, and at the same instant anticipated the consequences of her own indiscretion. She was told he was then at the coffee-house, and in a few minutes was thrown into an universal tremor upon hearing him knock at the door. He perceived her distress not with compassion but rage, because he believed it to proceed from the consciousness of guilt: he turned pale, and his lips quivered; but he so far restrained his passion as to ask her, without invective, Where, and how she had passed the night?' She replied, At Captain Freeman's; that the captain was upon guard, that she sat up with his lady till he came in, and that then, insisting to see her home, she would suffer the coach to go no further than her father's, where he left her early in the morning:' she had not fortitude to relate the sequel, but stopped with some appearance of irresolution and terror. Sir James then asked, 'If she came directly from her father's home.' This question, and the manner in which it was asked, increased her confusion to appear to have stopped short in her narra tive, she thought would be an implication of guilt, as it would betray a desire of concealment: but the past could not be recalled, and she was impelled by equivocation to falsehood, from which, however, she would have been kept back by fear, if Sir James had not deceived her into a belief that he had been no further than the neigbourhood. After these tumultuous reflections, which passed in a moment, she ventured to affirm, that she stayed with Miss Meadows till eight, and then came home:' but she uttered this falsehood with such marks of guilt and shame, which she had indeed no otherwise than by this falsehood incurred or deserved, that Sir James no more doubted her infidelity than her existence. As her story was the same with that of the captain's, and as one had concealed the truth and the other denied it, he concluded there was a confederacy between them; and, determining first to bring the captain to account, he turned from her abruptly, and immediately left the house. At the door he met the chairman who had been despatched by Mrs. Freeman to his lady, and fiercely interrogated him what was his business: the man produced the letter, and saying, as he had been ordered, that he brought it from Mrs. Fashion, Sir James snatched it from him, and muttering some expressions of contempt and resentment, thrust it into his pocket. It happened that Sir James did not find the captain at home: he, therefore, left a billet, in which he requested to see him at a neighbouring tavern, and added that he had put on his sword. In the mean time, his lady, dreading a discovery of the falsehood which she had asserted, despatched a billet to Captain Freeman; in which she conjured him as a man of honour, for particular reasons, not to own to Sir James, or any other person, |