I feel every harsh emotion subdued, and am ready to throw myself at her feet, avow my errors, and implore her to remodel, correct, and guide me. Such is the influence her softness and generous pity exert over my stubborn heart. Why did I urge this fair creature to wed one so wholly unworthy of her as is Lord Annandale, and so totally incapable of appreciating her? Lord Nottingham is precisely the sort of man with whom she would have been happy, as all I see of both of them convinces me. They would have met — would, I am sure, have loved and, in all human probability, have married, and enjoyed the felicity they deserve, but for me. Her conduct on the late trying occasion, makes me regret more than ever my fatal interference. I am interrupted, so must leave you. Chère amie, toujours votre CAROLINE. THE COUNTESS OF DELAWARD TO THE Do not consider me ill-natured or obstinate when I confess to you, my dear Augusta, that my doubts relative to Miss Montressor's purity are still unremoved. Her assertion, in her own case, is surely insufficient proof of her innocence, to any but a too partial friend. Are not the charges against her borne out by the extraordinary levity and indecorum of her manners? I acknowledge that all I have seen of her but too well disposes me to lend credence to what I have heard; and, coupling the tale of the Chevalier de Carency with the unfeminine freedom of her opinions, one appears to me as an evidence of the other. If I were less deeply, warmly interested in your welfare, I might be less severely disposed towards this lady: but when I reflect that she is an inmate beneath your roof, your daily associate nay, more, your friend,—I examine, with rigid eyes, her claims to such distinction; and, finding them so defective, would fain preserve you from contact with one whom I deem most unworthy. I fear my pertinacious adherence to the evil opinion I entertain of her will displease you, but I cannot vanquish it; and again I entreat you to guard against her influence. I lament that Lord Annandale wishes you to avoid an acquaintance with the friends I was so desirous you should know. I dare say you have judged rightly in imagining his prejudices to proceed from the pique of the Comtesse Hohenlinden. Nothing serves more to render a person averse from good company than the habit of associating with bad; and, in the circle in which Lord Annandale has moved, all who are moral and decorous are pronounced to be dull. There is policy in this opinion; for, as the really good would not countenance the clique to which I refer, they proclaim their dislike of what they know they cannot attain. Notwithstanding I entirely disapprove Lord Annandale's selection of associates for you, still let me advise you not to irritate him or them by any harsh censures. Patience is a woman's best armour; and gentleness, her only safe weapon. These may not have an immediate, but, I believe, they generally have a sure effect; and, therefore, I entreat you to use them always. A prudent woman will seek, not so much to convict her husband of error as to wean him from it; for men rarely pardon any exhibition of intellectual superiority in their wives, while they are soothed and gratified by meekness and affection. You are young, lovely, and highly gifted; Lord Annandale greatly admires you why not convert this admiration into a sentiment more durable, more valuable, which would secure for you an influence over him most advantageous to his interests, and to your own? Coldness and indifference never enabled a woman to gain an empire over a husband's heart; and yet these are, even from your own confession, but too visible in your demeanour towards him. Can you, then, wonder that he appears careless of your wishes, or callous to your reasoning? Remember, that Lord Annandale has been a spoiled child of fortnne-indulged and flattered to satiety. Truth has rarely reached him, and the love of hearing it is like the partiality for olives, an acquired taste. The friend who administers this unpalatable medicine should render it less nauseous, by affectionate kindness; so that its bitterness, like the physic |