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ill-mannered, and not immaculate in reputation. On observing certain individuals, in the circle styling itself exclusive, whose personal merits would never have gained them admission, my ignorant queries as to the why, and wherefore, have been replied to by the assertion, that “he or she was immensely rich;" a reply considered amply explanatory.

"Then he, or she, is probably very generous?" asked I, in my simplicity, supposing that a lavish expenditure on a clique proverbial for the derangement of the finances of its members, was the secret cause of the reception of the said rich individual,

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No, quite the contrary," has been the "he is très avare, I can assure you :

answer;

for no one better knows the value of money, or is less prone to make a generous use of it, than he who has no other recommendation,

But what is still stranger, this same reputa

tion for wealth is considered an excuse for the economy which a deficiency of income alone ought to justify. A man known to be rich may give, not only few, but remarkably bad dinners, and wines whose execrable quality all condemn ; yet, still, the very people who would unceremoniously decline a far less objectionable repast, if offered by one of limited means, will freely eat the one, and drink the other, because --the donor is affluent. The parsimony of the wealthy excites no murmurs: people like to dine with them, and to have them at their own boards; why, or wherefore, I cannot discover, unless the feeling may arise in a superstitious desire of consorting with those who are favoured by fortune.

So well understood is this inordinate respect for riches in this country, that not a few instances have been known of men who, with only a moderate income, have, by the stratagem

of pretending to possess a large one, gained a consideration and an ascendance in society, which they otherwise could never have acquired. "Mr. So-and-so is certainly a millionaire," was the excuse for a man of vulgar habits being seen every where, until his death revealed the fact of his supposed million being only a hundred thousand pounds; a fortune more than amply sufficient for all his desires, but the reputation of which would not have attained for him that preponderance in the world which he ambitioned.

Can it then be wondered at, that, seeing the influence wealth bestows, people are more anxious to possess, than fastidious in the mode of acquiring it? Hence, speculations the most unscrupulous, and actions the most reprehensible, are undertaken. If crowned with success, the mean is forgotten in the end; and if failure ensue, the action, and its consequences,

pass away from the memories of those who knew the guilt of the perpetrator; for, no-one here troubles himself to remember a poor man, except to avoid him.

I have now concluded a sketch, which, though it has no recommendation except its truth, may, I trust, ennuyer less than the witnessing the scenes described did your affectionate friend,

CAROLINE.

THE MARQUESS OF NOTTINGHAM TO

EDWARD MORDAUNT, ESQ.

YES, my dear Mordaunt, you are right; I love passionately, madly, love- Lady Annandale; yet it is a love as devoid of guilt as it is destitute of hope. The slightest betrayal of it would, I am persuaded, exile me from her sight for

ever; and I value the friendship with which she honours me too dearly, to risk losing the least portion of it by any imprudence.

You ask me what I propose to myself, in thus abandoning my heart to so engrossing, so ungovernable a passion? This is a question I have never dared to answer to myself. To meet her every day, to think of her every minute, to dream of her when I close my eyes, and to awake with the blissful certainty of seeing her,— these are my sole objects and aims; and these I may surely indulge without crime.

Ι

Mordaunt, if you knew the rapture 1 experience, when I behold her angelic face assume a more cheerful expression when I approach her; when I observe the deference with which she refers to my opinions, and the sweet and modest confidence with which she utters her own; the innocent delight with which she displays Annandale's hitherto neglected child,

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