and that from the hand of a friend, a story founded on the supposed guilt of one of those sweet girls. It is this levity, this ridicule of all that is good and respectable, that makes you incur the censure of those who are not, like me, prone to forgive it, in the consideration of your better qualities. And yet, Caroline, there are moments when I ask myself whether I ought to continue a correspondence in which sentiments are often expressed, and principles avowed, which are in total variance with all that I have ever been taught to believe praiseworthy. If you cannot think and feel as I do, learn, at least, to respect my feelings, and do not, by revolting them, prevent my continuing your affectionate friend,

AUGUSTA.

MISS MONTRESSOR TO LADY A. VERNON.

You do with me as you will, ma très chère; mais, en grace, send me no more scolding letters, and I, en revanche, will try not to deserve them, by believing every one you know to be as good, proper, and wise, as yourself. Are you not satisfied, now? I shall be much mortified, if, after this act of contrition, you do not invite me to be your bridesmaid. Weddings bring thoughts of matrimony into people's heads, it is said, who had not, before, an idea on the subject; and who knows, if, among the chosen few selected to witness your nuptials, some lord of the creation may not, from thinking of the agreeable position of the bride, be led to pity the disagreeable one of the bridesmaid? which I hold to be one of the most lamentable to which poor spinsters are exposed. Fancy unhappy me, decked in virgin white, with down

cast lids—a figure de circonstance which is,

I believe, d'usage on such occasions, wishing,

all the time, that "God had made me such a man;" and that I was the proprietor of a certain baronial chateau in the north, a park in the south, a mansion in the west end of London, and a box at the opera; as well as a certain other and still more precious box, bound in brass and of large dimensions, similar to one whose sparkling contents had excited my envy the day before.

All these virgin wishes would naturally produce a pensive expression of countenance, which would as naturally be attributed to an amiable disposition, and a deep conviction of the serious duties which marriage imposes. A woman that so properly feels this conviction must, of course, be likely to make a good wife; and the man, with a free hand, an empty heart, and a full purse, who sees a poor brides

maid wiping her eyes, as the chariot-and-four, with postilions with white favours, whisks off from her sight the blushing bride and exulting bridegroom, and does not speak comfort to her, must be a brute. Pity is, they say, akin to love; the pity once excited, (and what so likely to call it forth as such a scene as I have described?) who knows what may follow? and your poor friend may, from a weeping bridesmaid, be transformed, in due time, into a simpering bride. Do not mar the possibility of such a happy event, by not bidding to your nuptials your amie dévouée, CAROLINE.

LORD ANNANDALE TO THE MARQUESS OF NOTTINGHAM.

IF your letter of advice had reached me in time, my dear Nottingham, I should have followed it; but when did advice ever come in

time? Advice is like experience; it always comes when it is too late for use. My letter to sa seigneurie was despatched twice twenty-four hours before yours arrived. She has accepted the salve I offered to her wounded vanity; and has written to me, saying, that, in pity to my malheur, she will take Lady Annandale under her protection, and render her à la mode. I could have well dispensed with this excessive generosity on her part. Mais quoi faire ? Were I to exclude her from Lady Annandale's circle, she would become an active enemy; and I know the extent of her talents for tracasserie too well, to expose myself to their indefatigable activity.

I hope much from the great beauty of Lady Augusta; for the comtesse will hardly seek to exhibit her fanés charms near the youthful bloom of Lady Annandale - a bloom near which all other women look fade. For my