counter him, and I'll wager all I am worth, I will bring him round in a twinkling: Only let me have the proper credentials in my hand, do you fee, and I'll do it. I know whom you point at, replied Mrs. Goodifon, but I don't comprehend all your meaning; what credentials do you allude to? To the most powerful, faid Ned, that nature ever fet her hand to; the irrefiftible eyes of this young lady; might I only fay-This angel is a fupplicant to you, the heart that would not melt must be of marble. Conftantia blushed, every body feemed delighted with the unexpected turn of Ned's reply, whilst Mrs. Goodifon answered, that fhe feared even that experiment would difappoint him; upon which he eagerly rejoined, Then I have a refource against the worst that can befal us: There is a comfortable little manfion ftands withoutfide of my park; it is furnished and in compleat repair; there is a pleasant garden to it; Mr. Abrahams has seen it, and if you will be my tenant, you shall not find me fo hard a landlord, as fome you have had to deal with. As Ned spoke these words, Mrs. Goodifon turned her eyes full upon him with so intelligent and scrutinizing an expreffion, as to caufe a fhort ftop in his fpeech, after which he continued-Ah, Madam, how happy you might make me! the last inhabitant

of

of this beloved little place was my excellent mo ther; fhe paffed two years of widowhood in it with no companion but myfelf; I wish I had been more worthy of fuch fociety and more capable of improving by it; but I was fadly cramped in my education, being kept at home by my father, who meant all for the best (God forbid I fhould reproach him!) and put me under the care of Parfon Beetle, the curate of our parish, an honest well-meaning man, but alas! I was a dull lazy blockhead and he did not keep me to my book. However fuch as I am, I know my own deficiencies, and I hope want of honefty and fincerity is not amongst the number. Nobody can fufpect it, cried Abrahams. Pardon me, replied Ned, I am afraid Mrs. Goodifon is not thoroughly convinced of it; furely, Madam, you will not suppose I could look you in the face and utter an untruth: Nobody can look in your's, Sir, anfwered fhe, and expect to hear

one; it is your unmerited generofity that stops my tongue. After all, refumed Abrahams, I am as much indebted to your generofity as any body prefent, for as you have never once mentioned the name of my Conftantia in this propofal, I perceive you do not intend to rob me of both my comforts at the fame time. 'Tis because I have not the prefumption to hope, an

fwered

fwered Ned, that I have any thing to offer, which fuch excellence would condefcend to take: I could wish to tender her the best manfion I poffefs, but there is an encumbrance goes with it, which I defpair of reconciling to fo elegant a tafte as her's.-O love, faid I within myself, thou art a notable teacher of rhetoric! I glanced my eye round the table; Ned did the very reverfe of what a modern fine gentleman would have done at the close of such a speech, he never once ventured to lift up his eyes, or direct a look towards the object he had addreffed; the fine countenance of Conftantia affumed a hue, which I fufpect our dealers in Circaffian bloom have not yet been able to imitate, nor, if they could, to fhift fo fuddenly; for whilft my eye was paffing over it, her cheek underwent a "change, which courtly cheeks, who purchase blushes, are not subject to: the whole was conducted by those most genuine masters and best colourifts of the human countenance, modefty and fenfibility, under the direction of nature, and though I am told the ingenious Prefident of our Royal Academy has attempted fomething in art, which resembles it, yet I am hard to believe, that his carnations, however volatile, can quite keep pace with the changes of Conftantia's cheek. Wife and difcreet young ladies, who are

taught

taught to know the world by education and experience, have a better method of concealing their thoughts and a better reafon for concealing them; in fhort they manage this matter with more addrefs, and do not, like poor Conftantia

-Wear their hearts upon their fleeve

For daws to peck at.

When a fashionable lover affails his mistress with all that energy of action as well as utterance, which accompanies polite declarations of paffion, it would be highly indiscreet in her to fhew him how fupremely pleafed and flattered fhe is by his impudence; no, she puts a proper portion of fcorn into her features and with a ftern countenance tells him, fhe cannot stand his impertinence; if he will not take this fair warning and defist, she may indeed be overpowered through the weakness of her sex, but nobody can say it was her bashfulness that betrayed her, or that there was any prudent hypocrify spared

in her defence.

Again, when a fashionable lady throws her fine arms round her husband's neck, and in the mournful tone of conjugal complaint fighs out

"And will my dearest leave his fond unhappy wife to bewail his abfence, whilft he is "following a vile filthy fox over hedge and "ditch

VOL. IV.

S

"ditch at the peril of his neck?”—would it not be a most unbred piece of fincerity were she to exprefs in her face what fhe feels in her heart-a cordial wifh that he may really break his neck, and that he is very much beholden to thofe odious hounds, as fhe calls them, for taking him out of her fight? Certainly fuch an act of folly could not be put up with in`an age and country fo enlightened as the prefent; and furely, when fo many ladies of distinction are turning actreffes in public to amufe their friends, it would be hard if they did not fet apart fome rehearsals in private to accommodate themselves.

N° CXXI.