ing in it, too; yet, I should like to be more wildly, more passionately loved than Mary is; and I should be addicted to shewing my power over my lover, as well as exerting it. How delightful to alarm, to agitate him-to make him feel as if he could never be sure of me! instead of being, as Lord Delaward appears to be, as certain of Mary's unchangeable affection as he is of his own.

I write all that comes into my giddy head to you, because I know you to be as giddy as myself. I dared not have addressed half this idle trifling to Mary Howard, who views, in her future husband, the companion with whom she is to share those trials of life from which even the most fortunate are not exempt; while I should think only of the lover, with whom I was to enjoy its pleasures. Mary's is the just view, mine the too common one.

Lord Delaward presented a superb suit of

diamonds to Mary this morning; they were in

a case lined with blue velvet, and really shone like stars in the azure sky. They did not at all dazzle her, though, I confess, they did me. She seemed to value them only as being his gift, and in consequence of their having never been worn save by virtuous women; for his mother and grandmother were remarkable for their decorous lives; but I, if the truth must be told, should have valued them for their own intrinsic beauty, and not have given a thought to their former owners. I often wish that I could be as good and as rational as Mary Howard; and she sometimes makes me good, if not wise, by the influence she possesses over me. Mais, hélas ! it does not last long; for a few flattering speeches, a new dress, or a trinket, excite me to fresh levities, and all my praiseworthy resolutions fade away. I must leave off, as I am summoned to the

drawing-room; and shall resume my pen tomorrow, after the wedding.

I never fancied that I should weep at a wedding; yet, I have done so; and so, I think, would even you, had you been present, little as you are given to the indulgence of tears. There is something solemn in witnessing the ratification of a union that death alone can dissolve, when the individuals forming it are fully penetrated with the importance, the holiness of the duties they are undertaking. Mary (no longer Mary Howard) preferred being married in the parish church to having the ceremony performed at home: I ventured to ask her the reason yesterday, when we were alone; and she told me, that, having been baptised, confirmed, and having received

the sacrament in that church, she wished to

pledge her faith at the same altar.

My mother, too, sleeps there," added Mary, with a tear trembling in her eye; "and

this is a strong inducement to me it is as though it sanctified still more solemnly my marriage."

A pensiveness pervaded the whole party last evening. Lord Howard was evidently

thinking of his approaching separation from his child, while she was continually stealing looks at him, as if to imprint his features in her memory; though, at each glance, her eyes became suffused with tears. Lord Delaward made Lord Howard promise to join them in a fortnight; and pressed it so strongly, that it was easy to see that he considered this the best mode of consoling Mary.

My dear good papa and mamma seemed

to think that it was I that was going to be married; for they looked at me as often and as tenderly as if I was to be whisked off from them to-morrow in a travelling-carriage and four; and I began to fear, that they would make up their minds to take measures for my leading a life of single blessedness, now that all the pain of parting with a child

was brought home to their business and

their bosoms" by witnessing Lord Howard's chagrin.

The old servants (and nearly all of them are old) seemed to partake the general depression of spirits; and I continually caught them regarding their young mistress with reverential affection. I know that you will expect a description of the bride's dress, but I am thinking too much of her, to enter into a detail of her toilette. It was all that was proper for such an occasion; but, her pale