fond of home, that you wish to persuade me it is the only place in which I shall be secure from colds, &c. &c; but that cannot always succeed: so, my dear Marnley, prescribe a more palatable regimen. I wish just now that you would order me to recruit my spirits, by an attendance at the mimic scene. You will consent?-yes. I will disguise myself, by my caution to preserve my health; and if you are not disposed to take the charge, consign me to the care of Mr. Wentworth. Positively I have a very great idea that this same play would tend greatly to the amusement of your poor sombre Clara."

Wentworth heard this arrangement with a mixed sensation of surprise and regret. He avowed himself ready to attend the lady; yet ventured to express his fears that she might increase her indisposition.

"Not a word," said Mrs. Marnley, and she laid her white hand upon the arm of Sidney; he was not awed, but he was flattered.

tered. Clara conquered; and dispatching a hasty answer to lady Linburne, she soon after quitted the dinner-table.

When the carriage was announced, Mrs. Marnley folded her shawl round her figure, so as almost to obscure her person. "This," said she, "will not only secure me from cold, but from detection, as I should not I wish to be seen out until I have sent to Boyle to issue my cards of thanks."

"Observe how fashion, and a taste for sentimental writing, will lead a woman to finesse,” ," said Mr. Marnley. "Do these facts lead you to think of marriage, Wentworth?"

"They have not, as yet, tempted me to contemplate the subject," replied Sidney. "I suppose I shall be caught, and in time wear my chains with due humility.”

"What a hideous inference you have drawn from the remark of my cara sposa!" said Mrs. Marnley. "I do not allow such sarcasms in my presence. Allons," continued the now elated Clara, as she descended to the carriage.

This

This evening's association opened the eyes of Sidney to the finesse which some women practise. He beheld his companion so wholly subdued by the pathetic parts of this comedy, as to be, or appear to be, unconscious of the extent of her weakness. He thought it possible to be affected by a genuine sentiment of feeling; he allowed that the mind might be captivated to a degree which should give the fiction an appearance of reality; but in all pre-arranged expression, there is a correctness, not to say an hyperbole, which, upon examination, owns less of nature than suits with domestic scenery.

Thus when Mrs. Marnley turned from the comic interval; and reverted to the sentimental exhibition, he was internally arraigning her affected taste, if not dissecting her real from her assumed character. As if to recal, or rather to pervert, his just analysis, a folded paper caught his eye; he raised it from the carpet, and without thought opened and glanced over its contents. He

knew

knew not that Mrs. Marnley had observed the action; he had never considered it might have fallen from her pocket; but now its purport had met his view. He' looked inquiringly towards his companion, and not perceiving that she appeared to have done so, he hurried it into his pocket.

To trace the progress of moral error is a task truly painful; nor is it a province in which a female pen should embark too deeply, even admitting that the present is a period in which warmth of colouring and glowing sentiment is highly appreciated, and this upon the worst of all principles, the unfeminine avowal that it is constitutional to the fair vendor to disseminate such sentiments.

That vice should ever be depicted in odious colours, needs no new proof to establish its propriety; yet I must believe that it is not by the diffusiveness of description a delicate mind could be guarded; but rather by pourtraying the consequences, by placing every perverted principle in that

point

point of view in which it is regarded by those for whom they step aside. It is by these means I presume to think a tale of error may convey a judicious moral.

The paper which had fallen (accidentally, as it would appear) into the hands of Wentworth, was a love-sick sonnet "On Absence," with the signature "Clara" subjoined. Sidney had not scanned its merits, nor allowed himself to dwell upon the incident; at least he persuaded himself that he had not applied its subject specially. He did not remain long in doubt; for on the succeeding morning, a note, penned under the impression of alarmed sensibility, claimed at his hands, a paper which it was hoped would not wholly destroy the fair writer in the opinion of the generous Wentworth.

When a lady had given him credit for this quality, it was not in nature that he should deny the attribute. He did morehe answered her note, and added gratitude to the list of his virtues. The sonnet was detained; he no longer fled from the dan

ger