THE COUNTESS OF DELAWARD TO THE INDEED you are to blame, dear Augusta, in thus giving way to depression, and expecting from Lord Annandale a sensibility that few men ever retained after twenty-five; and none, even to that period, who have made society and its artificial enjoyments the principal object of life. There has been no deception on his part; he shewed himself, from the beginning, in his true colours; one of those who like, and are liked by, the world, as they style that small portion of it which is comprised in the fashionable circle of the metropolis. The succès de société is the utmost extent of his ambition; he has acquired it himself, at the expense of the more solid and sterling qualities, which a contact with the world is so calculated to injure, if not destroy; and he now, doubtless, wishes He captivated your to secure it for you. youthful mind by his descriptions of that society in which you are now called to enact a part; and you are unreasonable in expecting that he will abandon the habits which he has indulged for years, ignorant, as he probably is, that you disapprove of them. A romantic mind, to sympathise with yours, you must not expect to find in Lord Annandale; but a kind, good-tempered, and cheerful companion, you may calculate upon, and must be content with. This is more than falls to the lot of all; for remember that happiness consists, not in having much, but in being content with little. Greatly as I contemn artifice, there is sometimes a necessity of adopting it in married life. I refer to, perhaps, the only occasion where it is innocent, which is, that of not appearing conscious of a hus band's faults. As long as he believes they are not discovered, his vanity, if no better feeling influence him, will induce his studious concealment of them, which is the first step towards their amendment: but, when once he knows they are exposed, he becomes reckless and callous. Heaven forbid, my dear Augusta, that I should have any doubts of your conduct being always what it ought to be; what I dread in you is a disregard of disregard of appearances a neglect of the shadow of goodness, while you are satisfied with possessing the substance. This is what is most to be dreaded; for all very young women, too early thrown into the vortex of the artificial stream of fashion in which so many reputations, if not virtues, have been ingulfed. Invaluable as is the honour of a woman, be assured the possession cannot console her for the loss of its reputation, a loss to which her own VOL. I. K heedless inexperience, or levity, continually conduces, and which leaves her, through the remainder of her life, a target for the arrows of the censorious. I learn, with regret, that Miss Montressor is to take up her abode with you this season. Beware of following her counsel, or letting her introduce into your home circle any of the persons with whom she associated while on the Continent; of many of whom report speaks most injuriously. You know how I dread giving credence to, or repeating scandal, but I cannot reconcile it with my sense of duty towards you, to conceal the real character of this unworthy person, whom I sincerely wish you had never known, as she is the last woman I should wish to see installed beneath your roof. Let no * Here follows a statement similar to the one made by Lord Delaward to Lord Nottingham, which, to avoid repetition, we have suppressed. human being know that your husband is not an object of your strongest attachment; for, that once known, you will become an object of speculation and distrust to those who, judging of all women by a few of the worst specimens of the sex, conclude, that she who loves not her husband, either loves, or is ready to love, some one else. Avoid intimacies, either male or female, except with persons whose reputations are calculated to add lustre to yours, for much evil is often occasioned by a contrary conduct. All the faults attributed to a woman in society are supposed to be known, and shared, by the females of the clique in which she lives, and, if they have ever been suspected of indiscretion, she shares in the censure. The habitués of a house give the colour to the reputation of its mistress. The men are invariably supposed, |