Women desire the Approbation of sensible Men. to enslave the hearts of men by ensnar-ing their imagination." "Oh! you pervert what I say, brother," said Lady Charlotte; " I wish not to enslave the hearts of men; but all wo-men, let them say what they will, desire nothing so much as the approbation and regard of the sensible and worthy part of mankind."" Honest. Charlotte!" said. the Marquis, "and now, I will be ho-nest in my turn. About a year ago, I began to think it requisite, as a man of fashion, to be an admirer of your sex; and I found the truth of Ovid's remark, that, "A man sometimes begins to love in jest, "And after feels the torments he profest.” "For though I entered on my amorous career with apathy, and merely for fashion's sake, yet women to me became sweet erring Angels; "I love them with, and The age of the Duchess. even for, their faults ;" and I loved them all: Never could I be weary, I thought, of beholding the fine-turned limb, delineated through the almost transparent drapery that enwrapped it.. The Venus-like bust, sometimes wholly uncovered, created rapture at first; till at length it grew too familiar to the eye; and now I declare to you I can behold these frequent nudities, that are obtruded so continually on the sight, with the same cold sensations of indifference as I would look on. a piece of carved wood." The Duchess smiled, but her smile was accompanied with confusion: She felt a sense of shame stealing into her bosom. The recollection of the years she had numbered, shot its troublesome and intrusive truth over her mind. She was fiftyfive! But she had been, and she was still beautiful, though blind. She wished to change the subject. She A hint to the Reader. arose to walk, and took the arm of her daughter. For almost the first time in her life, Lady Charlotte found it gently pressed against her mother's bosom: she felt happy and delighted. The Marquis retired to his study, to commence the character of Mrs. Fer-: nonville; and though we do not present this character, or any other, in the exact words of these noble Biographers, yet the sense is preserved. It is in our power to add some little anecdotes, perhaps unknown as un-noticed by them, and we wish also to intersperse those reflections, which unheeding fashion too easily dispenses with, THE HON. MRS. FERNONVILLE. "How dost thou risk the soul-distracting view, THOMPS. Summer. WITH an high degree of momentary rapture and delight, on the glow of roscate bloom, on the bewitching dimpled smiles of an Hebe, on the cupid-like, infantine softness of an alabaster pair of handsome shoulders exposed to public view, to attract universal attention on a bosom, whose whiteness and firmness create the idea of Pygmalion's animated marble, the admiring eye rests itself, and finds these charms combined, in the Honorable Mrs. Fernonville. The Honorable Edward Fernonville, the husband of this beautiful lady, was the younger son of a noble family; and, as is too often the case with younger brothers, was under the necessity of seeking in a foreign country to ameliorate that Liberty of thinking and acting. fortune which was too small to satisfy his ardent spirit, or in any degree to make that kind of figure in England, his rank in life required. He was not disappointed in his pursuits and expectations: he returned to his native land, after realizing an immense fortune; which his lady as well as himself, knew how to expend in every species. of gratification, which fashion, extravagance, and dissipation, hold out to their votaries. The present ease of dress and manners adopted in England, highly pleased Mrs. Fernonville, and not to be outdone in any one instance of enlarged ideas and liberty of thinking and acting for herself, she gave into the most unbounded licence of manners, and seemed ambitious of appearing in the eyes of the world, by her half-dressed figure, and all her outward. manners, a female libertine. |