Old-fashioned Ideas.

of his fortune, and calculates how far and how well he may expend it.

He is greatly shocked, and that without any fastidious affectation of virtue, at one reprehensible part of the conduct of the rich and great; which disgust, in so young a man, often draws a smile from the high-born and insolent: he feels it in his own breast; and he expresses it aloud to his most valued friends, that he cannot imagine why any man, because he is born a nobleman, can think himself authorised to treat his inferiors with con-tempt and arrogance; or, because another has well-filled coffers, that he should believe they give him a licence to lavish their contents in guilty and destructive pleasures, and thereby set so dangerous an example to those beneath them.

Sir Edward Moreton is old-fashioned and eccentric enough frequently to utter these, his virtuous sentiments; to which he adds and sincerely feels, that truly

Conclusion.

noble principle, which teaches him that the higher the station to which a person is elevated, so much the more pure and circumspect should be his conduct.

Yet, though so amply possessed of all the milder virtues, Sir Edward Moreton knew what was due to his high consequence and dignity. He knew how to maintain that consequence in a cool determined manner, such as ever characterises the true gentleman; nor would he suffer the nearest or most dear of his relatives to interfere with his concerns, or in any degree to warp or counteract those principles of his exalted mind, which he was conscious were those of rectitude, and which were founded on the sure basis of virtue*.

"Rara avis in terris alboque similtima corvo."

* This character, being truly after nature, Sir Barnaby had an uncommon deal of satisfaction in painting it, and he performed the whole con amore !

THE

HON. MRS. EGERTON;

OR,

THE VICTIM OF CALUMNY.

66

Sæpe oculi et aures Vulgi testes sunt mali." P. SYRUS,

THIS is the Lady, whom the Marquis

of Waltham had taken so much notice of, as the friend of Lady Laura Pemberton.

The vicissitudes of life, some few years absence from her native country, and the effect of slanderous tongues, had made such a change in her countenance, (which yet could not be entirely divested of its powers of pleasing,) that she was méconnoisable to the fashionables of London, when she returned to England to take up her residence there.

At an early age she fled from the boarding-school, and married an officer,

Elopes from the Boarding-school.

several years her Senior. Though not possessed of one regular feature, except a beautiful set of teeth, inclosed in a small, well-shaped mouth, yet, an animated complexion, a most exuberant. flow of spirits, then unchecked by care, and unassailed by calumny, gave brilliancy to a pair of eyes, which were always expressive of a great share of meaning, and imparted to her whole countenance that irresistible je ne sçais quoi, which is sure to charm, as the Marquis of Waltham justly said, "We know not how,

or why,"

The longer a person is known, so much more does this indescribable attraction please; but, unfortunately, it pleases the men most; and creates envy, and often dislike, in the bosoms of the female sex.

Emancipated from the rigorous rules of the boarding-school, thrown into the company of crowds of Officers, who every