affair with fuch zeal and affection, that in a few days they were married, to the equal fatisfaction of both.

Thus all the company, mutually happy, returned to Avila, to the mother of Elvira, where they paffed the remainder of their lives in perfect good understanding with each other;—and, the two faithful lovers, who had fuffered fo many diftreffes, found their conftancy now amply rewarded, by the lafting pleasures of a conjugal and virtuous love.

LOVE PUT TO THE TEST:

DESCRIBED IN A LETTER FROM LADY SERENA TO SYLVIA.

DEAR SYLVIA,

WHILE I envy you the

true felicities of a calm retreat, you repine at being deprived, for a few months, of the noify enjoyments of this tumultuous town.-You long to know what paffes among the gay, the trifling world; wish to be told of the foibles you pity,

and, in fpite of all your good-nature, are starved for want of a little fcandal.-Indeed, my dear, I am the most unfit perfon alive to treat you with this kind of food; however, I will do my best to entertain you, affuring you at the fame time, that it fhall be at the expence of my own follies, not those of other people.

You know though I loft my husband before what they call the honey-moon of marriage was expired, and became a widow at fixteen, I always declared against entering into a second engagement. I need not tell you my fincerity in this point, fince you have been witness of many instances to convince you of it.-For more than four years, I perfifted in my resolution; but, you do not fee my blushes, while I confefs that towards the middle of the fifth, other ideas came into my head.-About that time I happened to meet Dorimenes, at lady Lucia's affembly; he was just then returned from his travels; the world allows, he is perfectly accomplished :he seemed to distinguish me in a particular manner, directed ́every thing he faid to me, and watched my eyes for an approbation.-All the company took notice of his behaviour. They spoke of it wherever they came, and from this firft interview gave him to me as a lover.

After this, I could go to no public place without fecing him. Whether I went to church, to court, to the park, the ridotto, the opera, or play,

play, I was fure of finding him.-At laft he took the liberty of vifiting me, declared an infinity of paffion for me, and left nothing unfaid or unfworn to convince me of the reality of it. -It was not vanity, but a fecret liking, that made me but too willing to give credit to his flatteries: -Yes, Sylvia, I will own to you that I was weak enough to be pleased with the perfon and addrefs of Dorimenes, and alfo to let him fee I was fo. He propofed marriage, and I had half consented, when a sudden thought came into my head, to make trial how far his affection would extend.-I told him I had but one objection to becoming his in the way he mentioned; which was, that being determined as I imagined never to marry again, I had made a deed of gift to a relation, of all I was worth in the world, in cafe I ever did fo, and that the fame moment that made me a wife, made me also a beggar; fo that, faid I, with a very serious air, it is out of my power to change my condition, unless to a man who has a fufficient stock of fortune and love to fupport a wife of quality, without the leaft contribution on her part:-The one of these, continued I, I know you are mafter of, but dare not fatter myfelf you have enough of the other, to hazard the inconveniences of fuch a union.

Perfect as he is in the art of diffimulation, he could not keep the fhock this tale gave him from

being visible in his countenance.-You would have been diverted to have feen the awkward profeffions he afterwards made; but I felt a certain tremor at my heart, that convinced me more than I had been before, how much he had got poffeffion of it.-His words, indeed, were paffionate as ever, but the accents in which they were spoke, were faint and languid; he vowed his whole defires were centered in my charming perfon, but his eyes gave the lye to every oath, and while he fwore he wifhed no greater heaven than my presence, difcovered an impatience to be gone.-I was now no less defirous to be rid of him, and to break off an engagement I could no longer find any pleasure in.-Some company luckily came, and relieved us both; and, would you believe it, Sylvia, we have never met fince. -He fent me a letter the next day, pretending fudden business in the country; but I know he is ftill in town, though he carefully avoids all places which threaten him with my appearance.

I fee, in my mind's eye, as Hamlet fays, the impatience which friendship and curiofity excite in you for the fequel of this adventure, as it relates to me, for I have already informed you of all I can concerning Dorimenes.-I was moft terribly mortified for the first four or five days, and half repented of the ftratagem which had loft me fo agreeable a lover, and by putting his generofity to too fevere a teft, removed the fweet delufion

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from my eyes, which, had it continued, would have afforded me the fame fatisfaction the reality could have done; but pride at length came to my affiftance, and enabled me to think only with contempt of a man, who while he pretended the moft fublime paffion that ever was, had only fordid intereft in view, made his addreffes to my fortune, not my perfon, and could think with Hudibras,

What's the worth of any thing,

But fo much money as 'twill bring?

On the recovery of my liberty, I was fadly alarmed at what might be said in regard to this affair. All my acquaintance had feen the devoirs paid to me by Dorimenes; they now saw those devoirs were entirely ceased, and I trembled at the thoughts that my picture might be drawn in a willow garland at all the tea-tables in town, and perhaps exhibited on the theatre of mimicry, among the catalogue of miferables.-I did not find that an affectation of gaiety would of itself be fufficient to defend me from the mischief I fo much dreaded; and as I had heard it was a maxim with politicians to feem moft open in those things they most endeavoured to conceal, I refolved to put it in practice, and related to every one I came in company with, the whole subject of my last conversation with Dorimenes, boasting

at