I am perfectly idolized. "Your lady-' 66 ship must have seen a vaft deal of the "world."

"O madam! bloody fcenes have but "little to amufe."

66

--

"O dear, your ladyfhip! I wonder did not die upon the spot."

you

His knightfhip is promised a handsome poft as the reward of his valour : but a peace enfues the miniftry is changed and he finds himself funk into oblivion. He exalts his voice wherefoever he comes: -fights his battles over and over again— whilst I give the confirming Yes to all that he is pleased to relate. His efforts, however, prove ineffectual: his country

wants his fervice no longer: and who remembers what is paft?-He has the mortification to fee his head taken down from for the more imevery petty ale-house.

portant purpose of doing honour to the

member

-

member of a neighbouring county; — or, perhaps, only replacing a new painted grinning Saracen. - He, in short, has nothing for it, but to fly to his patrimony in Wiltshire teach his children to avoid

public fpiritedness, if they would avoid illtreatment and disappointment and herd with every thick-headed fquire within fifty miles round.

--

I, his fpoufe, have by this time paffed my meridian collect a ftring of useful receipts make poffet drinks prepare falves, &c. &c.—I have enough upon my hands my husband foured by neglect himself neglects me alfo - except when returns of the gout make him fenfible I am one degree better than common lumber.He is, at length, taken off by an uncommonly fevere attack and does not leave me one fix-pence more than my jointure; -and, having educated his heir (my eldest cub) agreeable to his own tafte and prin ciples, he even thinks that too much for

me.

me.

Thus, Nancy, I who now (however qualified by nature) fhine in the box,

and sparkle at the ball by a too early facrifice of my liberty, and adherence to a fet of formal romantic notions of dutifulnefs, lovingness, &c. &c.-fhould pass my days without enjoyment — die in obfcurity unpitied, unlamented, by even the very beings I had given life to.

If you can expect me to fall in love with fuch a piece, you are by no means the girl I take you for : - but, alas! that appellation no longer fuits you, and I know not what judgment to form of you in other particulars.

LET

I

LETTER XXVIII.

From the fame, to the fame.

Forefee a rupture of no fmall confequence is at hand:

my aunt bears all before her-the jeweller-the mercerthe millener, &c. &c. are fucceflively rapping at the door the whole morning long. - We are denied to every one, my old admirer, fir Matthew, in particular: fufficient this conduct to rouse the spirit of a meeker woman than myself. — But I have ftill a further, nay an irrefiftible ftimulative for Mifs Kitty, (I am infinitely obliged to her upon this occafion, however) by revealing the train of their meafures to her favourite Abigail, in a

:

private

private tête-à-tête (when I was fupposed to be at too great a distance to reap any benefit) has enabled me to counterwork them in every mean particular.

What is it then judged neceffary to confine me to a dark room, in order to fucceed in their darker purposes? But I will burst out when they least expect it. If I express an inclination to go any where, the answer is, "My dear, you are yet "too weak to bear much fatigue-we "will make a little party at home."Kitty, indeed, is engaged; but the

colonel and Mrs. Hobbes (a woman "only ten years older than herself) will "complete a fett." So down we fit fhuffling and cutting-now the cards-and now a harmless joke-until the noify hallclock diftinctly deals us out ten fober ftrokes,-when I am hurried to my apartment, as if my very fate was hinged upon that fingle period.

VOL. I.