the serious attention of any man, or that I am not a dangerous person, she has not only never opposed the familiarity of intercourse into which we have fallen, but has contributed to increase it, by constituting me in some sort the instructor of her niece, by requesting me to accompany her music with my flute, to examine her progress in French and Italian, and to perform various other offices of friendship; at the same time. observing that Kate is at that aukward age, which is just too old for the nursery, and too young for the drawing-room; and it really is kind in the extreme in any friend to endeavour to draw her into notice, and thus prepare her for that introduction to society which must now shortly take place.'

66

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Were I a man of ample fortune, or

large expectations, I should understand all this; but Lady Vincent knows that this is not the case, so that I must acquit her of all blame, but on a point she cannot help which is, her ignorance of human nature; for how it is possible for any body less than stupid to imagine a man in habits of intimacy for a whole month with such a girl as Catherine Dorrington, without attaching himself to her, heart and soul, I cannot conceive. Our host and hostess, Mr. and Mrs. B—, see it all, I am persuaded; but, besides that they consider it no business of theirs, they are just the kind of persons to think a love affair a matter of course between two young people who happen to be disengaged, and a pleasant enough sort of manner of passing away a summer. So here I am, my dear F, in a way

to end the affair a vast deal more seriously than I began it. In short, the inatter is now in a train to be disposed of in the old fashioned way of matrimony. Now, don't laugh at me-but be merciful; and that I may tempt you to be so, I will fully unfold to you how I I was led (somewhat more suddenly, indeed, than I anticipated,) to bring my fate to a crisis; and if you, or any other man, holding the affections of such a girl in your power, could have done otherwise than I did, why then brand me for a fool; or yourself for what, in that case, I think you would deserve to be called. But to the point.

"I have told you that this teaching on the one part, and learning on the other, very naturally led to an attachment be-. tween the tutor and his pupil; but her

extreme youth and my indifferent fortune, made me pause before I ventured to solicit her affections; nay, I had even resolved, as a point of honour, to take myself out of her way, and do my best towards banishing her seductive image from my thoughts.

"In this state of mind, a few evenings since, I took a walk with her round the lawn and grounds; an exceedingly prudent proceeding you will say, under the laudable design I had just formed of forgetting her entirely. However, prudent or not, I could not forego her society till compelled to it; and so I took the walk which decided my destiny. I tried as long as possible to ward off every disposition to steal into her confidence, and read the state of her young unsuspecting heart, which a man the

most honourablyinclined could scarcely, perhaps, under such circumstances, have totally resisted; and by dint of amusing and interesting her by repeated passages of poetry, I, for a time, succeeded. But it was a hard trial, when, unconsciously turning to see how she was affected by any sweet or tender thought which my quotations produced, I perceived the loveliest eyes in the world glistening with tears, and fixed upon me with an affection that penetrated to my soul. It seemed to my imagination as if it asked my pity and returning love; and, scarcely knowing that I spoke, I gave utterance to the thoughts that passed within me. I remember little of what I said; but that I ended with an impassioned exclamation, Who could grieve you?'

6

"Her soft trembling pressure upon my