courtship, and I endeavour to adapt my dress to my life. Believe me, Madam, it well deserves all the time and cost I bestow upon it; for it is my Mentor and Minerva. When I am disposed to forget myself, these rare and costly tappings remind me that I am a gentleman, that I must act up to the character I have assumed, that I must not disgrace my garniture, nor dishonour the sword I wear. No clergyman can respect his cloth more sacredly than I do my embroideries."

"Then you must accept it as a compliment,' said Emily smiling, "when I express my sincere conviction that you are worthy of each other. In this point of view the boundless expense of your decorations, which are ever new, and ever equally elegant, is not perhaps so great a waste as I had imagined."

"If I do not benefit myself I at least serve others by the vanity and profusion of my personal luxuries, for my tradesmen are punctually paid, (the only point in which I am unfashionable,) and my large income still leaves me a surplus for better purposes. Even in my vanities, therefore, however unintentionally, I diffuse a

certain degree of happiness around me, and I confess that I am rewarded much beyond my merits, for when I survey the wide circle of my acquaintance, I see few so happy as myself.May I implore of you to cross to the other side of the Green, for the wind wafts towards us the smoke of the Squire's pipe, and if my periwig were to imbibe the smallest odour of tobacco, I must throw aside this chef d'œuvre of Chedreux, and defraud him of his immortality."

of

As Emily's attention was directed by this speech to her brother, who still sat smoking and drinking in the alcove, she could not help con trasting his soiled scarlet frock, his slovenly cravat, dishevelled hair, deer-skin waistcoat, and dirty boots, with the exquisite elegance Sir Harcourt; while the haggard expression that was rapidly extinguishing his former healthy comeliness, afforded a striking confirmation of her companion's remark, that when he looked around him, he saw few so happy as himself. They passed to a different quarter of the bowling-green, and Emily, anxious still fur

ther to draw out the Baronet's sentiments, observed, that reading afforded a resource for his time which he had omitted to notice.

"Wrinkle me, Madam, if I do not read every thing that comes out," said Sir Harcourt; " and I have the honour of knowing most of the poets about town, who annually ease me of a good round number of my broad pieces, in return for their flattering dedications. But alas! our evil passions find their way into books, and the mental epicure can seldom lay one down without wishing that he had never taken it up. History is only a record of crimes, the Newgate Calendar of Kings; theology is a war of opinions about a religion of peace; poetry is tuneful lying; politics are but the fierce snarling of hungry dogs contending for the picking of a bone; and I rise from the perusal of such works with no other satisfaction than that of knowing that I am neither a poet, theologian, nor politician, but a professed man of pleasure, according to my own acceptation of the term; a coxcomb, a fop, a man of the

mode if you will, according to the acceptation of the world."

"You compared yourself to Brutus-am I then to understand that, like him, you are merely acting a part."

"Madam, I am the heir apparent of the common hangman, if I be not a sincere and genuine coxcomb. What began in affectation has ended in conviction. I am a convert to my dress: I can literally say, that habit has become a second nature with me, and one which, I am vain enough to believe, has in some respects improved upon the first.-Page! keep closer to me, sirrah! the wind is getting up; tell me when it begins to agitate the waves of my peruke."

While he had been thus discoursing, Lady Crockatt, Mrs. Chatsworth, and a Miss Crawley, a humble companion of her Ladyship, and the recipient of her ill-humours, who attended to administer her medicines, listen to her complaints, and assist her to do nothing, entered the bowling-green, and made their immediately to the alcove where the Squire was seat

way

ed, to which spot Sir Ambrose Jessop, and three or four more were presently summoned, when all appeared to be engaged in a deep and earnest confabulation. Not many minutes elapsed ere Emily was called by her brother to join the party, and apologizing to her companion, was preparing to run across the green. "Hist!" said the Baronet, laying his fore-finger upon his lip in such a manner as to display his ring to advantage. "Remember, we have been upon honour, and in confidence. Not a word of what has passed. If it should transpire that I have been talking sense, I should be degraded from my post; my cap and bells would be torn from my head, and I should lose all the privileges of coxcombry."

Emily laughed, and hastened across to the little assemblage in the alcove, whose conversation we must enable the reader to understand, by informing him that we have now brought him to the morning subsequent to Adeline's misadventure with the fish-poacher, as recorded in the last Chapter. It will be recollected, that Helen had agreed to accompany her at an early