ambition to be one of the chairmen. By the by, Squire, I have the prettiest French sedan sent me over by De Grammont, lined with Philamott velvet, which relieves my blonde peruque à merveille; a small mirror let into the lining on either side, and another in front; a pocket for my fleur d'orange and pomanders, a second for my snuff box; drap de Berri at top to keep out the rain; a fringed loop to tie up my sword; silver serpents for handles to the doors; and mouldings, arms, and tassels of the same metal :-a pretty toy enough to carry one to dinner at Lockett's or Chatolin's; and when I first published it in Bow Street and the Piazzas, I am the descendant of a dustman if my four footmen had not enough to do to keep off the mobile."

In this species of fashionable chit-chat the Baronet, running on with a careless though always an elegant fluency, would occasionally utter sentiments which corresponded rather with the prevalent opinions of the mode, than with the real feelings of his own heart. Of this nature had been his observations upon

marriage, which, however, he had purposely advanced to check the importunity of his host, who somewhat too obviously betrayed his wishes with respect to Emily. Never was there a more complete illustration of the adage, that an injudicious friend is worse than an enemy; for, in spite of her mauvaise honte and gaucherie, when she was quiescent, and the undue vehemence of her feelings when they were aroused, Sir Harcourt had a respect for Emily's character, though he revolted from the notion of being talked and tutored into a penchant, by the coarse, clumsy, and palpable contrivances of her brother. To one who had been long conversant with artificial manners, with the brazen confidence, affected suavity, licentious latitude, or pert vivacity of the Court females, most of whom, whatever might be their different disguises, practised the same vices in private, there was something inexpressibly attractive in Emily's comparative naïveté. Her blushing bashfulness was an evidence of her innocence; her angry earnestness, however it might violate the decorum of polished life, at

the

least attested the blunt honesty of her character; and both, independently of their intrinsic recommendations, possessed in his eyes paramount charm of novelty. Though he really despised the fashionable world, of which he was the acknowledged leader, he had a latent horror, however, of its ridicule; and the fear of its being said that he who might have chosen among all the titled belles of Whitehall, had suffered himself to be cajoled, by a bumpkin of a country Squire, into a marriage with his raw redcheeked sister, haunted him with redoubled force when his clownish host blurted out any of these broad hints, and determined him not to compromise himself in word, look, or action.

'Whoop! sink me! Sir Harcourt," said the Squire, vexed and disappointed at his diatribe against matrimony, which he considered to be a complete damper to his hopes; "I suppose you will hold it vulgar next to play shuffleboard, though you've promised me a game this many a morning. What say you? Shall I

stake

emy gold watch against your's?-Mine is a Tompion, your's Aspenwold's; and both about

the same value, I suppose. Mine, to be sure, belonged to my poor old father, but I can tell by its ticking that it feels melancholy at being left behind, when all the trees and half the acres have walked off from the Rookery. -Whoop! who wants fathers or godfathers?

'He that wears a brave soul, and dares handsomely do, Is a herald to himself, and a godfather too.'

Hey! Yoicks! Tantivy ! 'Sblood! I'm in rare spirits. Haugh! haugh! haugh!"

Sir Harcourt having signified his readiness to join him in any sport that night afford him diversion, they proceeded to the hall, which they had no sooner entered than the Squire inquired, with a distasteful look, the meaning of the perfumed smoke that pervaded the place.

"May my periwig olfact of tobacco, if this be not a graceful innovation of Miss Hartfield's," said Sir Harcourt. "On account of the number of dogs that quarter themselves in the hall, I was yesterday, in crossing it, obliged to refer to my pomander, and your sister then promised me that she would correct the evil, for which

attention I hold myself her debtor. I must send you, however, some of Silvani's pastilles, scented with musk and calembuc."

"Buzz! Sir Harcourt; give me the good old times, when our halls always smelt of meat and March beer, and the floor was well strewed with dog's dung and marrow-bones. The best perfumes then came from the buttery hatch and the great cellar, when half-a-dozen black jacks stood at the door, and a rich smell of damp saw-dust and spilt wine rose steaming up from below. Come on, Baronet; I ought to be lucky in the old hall; for there's a horse-shoe nailed to the threshold, and a clove of garlick stuck over the door. So here goes for your gold Aspenwold."

A huge pair of antlers were nailed to the wall above the shuffle-board, and the Squire gave a long and animated account of his father's exploits in following up the stag to which they had belonged, until he had leapt over the cliff at Beer-head, and had been dashed to pieces. To this narrative the Baronet gave much more of his attention than to the game, so that his