ticipate the rural felicity we shall enjoy at WillowBank. In one of your letters you inform me, that it is universally believed in Yorkshire that Lord Deanport is immediately to be married to Miss Moyston; and in your last you say that you have just heard of his having fallen in love with Miss Clifford of Northumberland; which it was thought, would break the intended match. You have too much good sense, my dear, to believe all the idle stories that are circulated; and I hope you have a better opinion of my son's understanding, than to imagine that he would act contrary to reason and propriety. Miss Moyston is a virtuous young lady, worthy of the hand of the first nobleman of this kingdom. As for the Miss Clifford you mention, I know little or nothing about her; but I will own to you, as a friend, that you have excited my curiosity to know somewhat of that damsel. They tell me she has been a good deal abroad, and has much the appearance of a French woman. I should like to know on what account she went abroad so unexpectedly, what rumours were excited in the country on that head, and how she spent her time in Northumberland after her return: I hear she used to hunt a good deal. Of these and other particulars concerning her, you may procure me a circumstantial account from your old friend Mr. Proctor, who lived on an intimate footing with Miss Clifford's father, and had the management of his affairs when he was abroad. I approved of your refusing Mr. Proctor, notwithstanding his supposed wealth; because he is a retired kind of man, and lives not in that sphere of life in which you are formed for shining. I am glad, however, to hear that he still continues the victim of your eyes; because he may have it in his power to be useful to you in various ways. I hear he is soon to be at York; and will no doubt be frequently at your aunt's during his stay. You will then find opportunities of getting the information I want. I dare say that you will manage the business with your usual address, and without letting it be known that I am the person for whom you make the inquiries. You shall know at meeting on what account I am desirous of having this information; for which I am the more impatient, because the sooner it comes the sooner will it be in my power to send for you. I remain yours affectionately, E. D. LETTER XLIII. The COUNTESS of DEANPORT to JAMES GRINDILL, Esq. London. LADY FARO was seized with a violent indigestion, after supping very heartily on capon stuffed with truffles. This terrified her to such a degree, that she has changed the night of her assembly from Sunday to Monday. She is still very ill, but I sincerely hope she will recover; for it would be very hard were she to make her escape before I had one other chance for the money she won from me last week. Meanwhile, as none of my acquaintance who have cardparties on Sunday are as yet come to town, I shall employ this evening in endeavouring to amuse myself and you with the history I promised. Lady Mango is the offspring of a respectable grocer in the city, who, having a variety of daughters, thought it a prudent speculation to send the handsomest, and most troublesome of them, on a matrimonial venture to Bengal; where she had the good luck to hit the fancy of Mr. Mango, just after he had made an immense fortune by some very advantageous contracts. He paid assiduous court to the girl, made her splendid offers, and was in hopes of bringing the intrigue to a hapру conclusion without marriage; but, profiting by the experience she had had previous to her leaving London, she rejected all terms in which that ceremony was not an article. After a hard struggle between his prudence and his passion, the latter obtained the victory, and Mr. Mango was married to Miss Figgs. He was one of those men who put a great importance on whatever contributes, even in the smallest degree, to their own ease; and little or none to what conduces, even in the greatest degree, to the ease of others. This disposition is by no means very uncommon; but Mr. Mango possessed it in rather a greater degree than usual. In him, however, this did not proceed from any positive cruelty of temper; but merely from an indolence of mind, which prevented him from ever thinking of any body's sensations but his own. In the East Indies, where men of his fortune travel in palanquins, have slaves to fan the flies from them while they repose, and are surrounded by the most obsequious dependents, this kind of indulgence of self, and forgetfulness of others, may be carried greater lengths without a check than in England. Mr. Mango was obliged to his wife for instructing him, that another person in his own family, besides himself, had a will of their own; and that it would tend to his tranquillity to follow that person's will instead of his own. This she accomplished without the assistance of genius; and without any talent whatever, except obstinacy; for in all other respects she was a weak woman. She made it a rule to insist, with unremitting perseverance, on every measure she proposed, until it was adopted; and, by adhering to this simple rule, all her measures were sooner or later adopted; for, what point will not a man give up, rather than hear an eternal harping on the same string? After Mrs. Mango had obtained the great object of her voyage to the East Indies, her next was to prevail on her husband to return to England; where the splendour in which she proposed to live was more flattering to her imagination than the luxuries at her command where she was. Mr. Mango informed her, that the situation of his affairs required that his family should remain another year in the East Indies; and she informed him, that it would be better for him and his family to return that very season to England.' She repeated this every day, and every hour of the day, for a month after which the whole family embarked On their passage home, the wife was observed to be in good spirits, even when the weather was bad: whereas the husband complained of sickness, even when the wea ther was good and a little before they arrived at Portsmouth, he acknowledged to one of the passengers, that his last contract was the most unfortunate one he had ever made. He had hardly any acquaintance in London; and he was not much flattered by that of his wife's relations. Mr. and Mrs. Mango were, therefore, seldom together; and he appeared rather low-spirited for some time after their arrival: yet, when she asked him how he liked London, he had the politeness to answer, that, on the whole, he preferred it to living aboard a ship.' By habit, London became less disagreeable to him; and as he saw little of his wife, and had formed some new acquaintance whose society amused him, he began to get the better of his dejection, when his spouse opened on him a new source of vexation, which lasted all his life. Mr. Mango's Christian name was Jeremiah, When a boy at school, his comrades, for some whimsical reason, when they wished to tease him, used to call him Sir Jeremiah. Nothing provoked him so much; and he held in utter abhorrence the appellation ever after. He never signed Jeremiah, but always J. Mango. His correspondents were instructed to address their letters to him in the same manner. If he received one with Jeremiah at full length, it put him out of humour the whole day. Most unfortunately for this gentleman, the husband of one of his wife's acquaintance was knighted; and his spouse, of course, instead of Mrs. Lotion, was called Lady Lotion. This was a great mortification to Mrs. Mango, who considered herself as the superior of this acquaintance, because her husband was richer, and because, as she asserted, she was sprung from a more ancient and honourable family of grocers than the other. Mr. Mango having come home one day in a gayer humour than usual to dinner,-after a little preface, his spouse said, that his friends were surprised that he did not apply to be created a knight.' The poor man turned pale in an instant, and burst into a cold sweat: he well knew the consequence of having that dignity conferred on him would be to have the detested name of Sir Jeremiah sounded in his ears for the rest of his life. He had often thanked his stars that this idea had never entered his wife's head, and had once cautioned one of his friends never to mention, in her presence, the name of a relation of his, who made a continual display of a foreign badge upon his breast, and had Sir pronounced before his name. The same friend told me, that Mr. Mango, in the fulness of his heart, on this affecting subject, had expressed himself, with some variation, in the words of Othello; It has pleased heaven To try me with affliction, To steep me in marriage to the very lips, To give to captivity me and my utmost hopes A drop of comfort.-I am not yet A fixed figure for the time af scorn To point his slow unmoving finger at’ For, continued he, in a less emphatic tone, though I hear frequently of wives teasing their husbands to apply to be made knights, yet that cursed fantasy has never occurred to mine: and I hope to slip quietly out of the world without being branded with the horrid appellation of Sir Jeremiah,' Such being Mr. Mango's sentiments, it is easy to ima. gine how much he must bave heen shocked at what his wife said. He made no immediate reply, having some faint hope that it was a transient idea which she might never resume. But when Mrs. Mango repeated what she had said, he meekly represented to her the horror he felt at the thought of having the odious name of Sir Jeremiah continually resounded in his ears, and earnestly begged that she would not insist on a measure which would subject him to such a mortification, To this Mrs, Mango replied, that he was to blame in disliking the name of Jeremiah; that, though not a roy al name, like those of David, and Solomon, and Rehoboam, 17 |