that unlucky phrase she cannot forgive; proving the correctness of the old proverb which says, that "it is only the truth that offends.

Friends on

I know not what to do, nor where to go. whom, previously to our pecuniary embarrassments, I thought I might safely count, have all looked so coldly on me since that epoch, that my pride revolts from seeking their aid in this hour of need. The duc is, I know, of late, greatly straitened in his own finances; therefore, from him I can expect little more than sympathy and affection. There is no one to whom I can apply, except la Comtesse de Hautefort, who has received too many proofs of kindness from me, and of generosity from my husband, not to evince hospitality to me under my present distressing circumstances. How mortifying, how humiliating, to be reduced to so painful a dilemma!

Bless your stars, chère Caroline, that you are rich; for, to a proud spirit, there is no evil like poverty: nay, it includes all the others.

I have no money, for your generous loan I sent to poor Florestan; who, alas! in his imprudence, has squandered it all away in giving recherché dinners in St. Pelagie. Mais après tout, I cannot much blame the poor fellow; for there are so few ways of passing the time in that wretched place, that it is not either very surprising or very reprehensible that he should have fallen into this folly, pour s'amuser.

Florestan was always so indulgent to my weaknesses, that it would be inexcusable of me not to extend a similar forbearance to his. Poor Florestan! You may laugh at me as much as you please, Caroline; ay, as much as in days of yore, when you used to say that our love resembled that of une couple bourgeoise, rather than the polite indifference of two persons of la haute noblesse: but I do still retain a sentiment of affection towards my husband, that might, had we never lived in the gay society of Paris, have formed the happiness of us both. Mais, à quoi bon ces tristes reflexions? And yet our

position is well calculated to give rise to such,-Florestan the inmate of a prison, where evil example corrupts and debases the mind, rendering vicious companionship and loose indulgences, which at first disgusted him, habitual: and I driven with insult from the shelter of his aunt's roof, to seek one beneath that of—his mistress !

To be sure my present abode never proved otherwise than disagreeable; still I would prefer it to that of Madame de Hauteforte's, whose coldness and hauteur of late have displeased me. Do you know, ma chère, that malgré all my boasted philosophy, I could sit down and weep at the painful embarrassment in which I find myself, but I am preserved from this unavailing weakness by the reflection that, were I to weep until I became a second Niobe, my position would not be ameliorated: au contraire, I should only spoil my eyes, which are one of the few advantages still left to me, and few people · are dispossed to serve ugly or larmoyantes women. Having lost my fortune, I must not also lose my good looks; and though I am your affectionate, must not become your ugly friend,

DELPHINE, MARQUISE DE VILLEROI.

THE COUNTESS OF ANNANDALE TO LA MARQUISE DE VILleroi.

NEVER, chère Delphine, shall I forget what I have endured this evening, in the society of that miscreant De Carency!

He presented himself, dressed perfectly a-la-mode; and, strange to say, has resumed the air and tone of good company so completely, that, on listening to, and regarding him, I could scarcely imagine that he was the coarse and brutalised ruffian I beheld in the country. He approached me without the slightest symptom of embarrassment; delivered several amiable messages purporting to come from you; and referred to our ancient friendship in Italy, in a manner to induce the persons present to suppose that he must be one of my chosen friends.

How I felt my cheeks glow at his allusion to the most fatal event of my life-my acquaintance with this monster! But, instead of being diverted from the subject by my evident distress, he seemed to have a pleasure in exercising this species of torture over me, probably in revenge for the marked coldness of my manner towards him.

We had several people to dinner, to many of whom Lord Annandale presented him; and he acted the agreeable so effectually, that I saw, with secret horror, that he was establishing an acquaintance with them by the most assiduous attentions and animated conversation.

He sat next Lady Godalming-the fastidious and hy. percritical Lady Godalming-and displayed so much tact in the judicious compliments rather implied than expressed to her, that I heard her offer him a ticket for Almack's, and invite him to her next soirée. Good heavens ! could she but imagine the crimes of this man, how would she shrink from the possibility of meeting him!

During dinner, more than once I anxiously and stealthily observed the servants, to endeavour to infer from their looks whether, like my femme de chambre, they suspected, if they had not detected, the identity of the -well-dressed man of fashion before them and the unsightly ruffian whose ferocity had filled them with fear and disgust but, fortunately, they seemed to entertain no suspicions.

When cards were introduced in the evening, he made one of the whist-table of the Marquess of Haverfordwest, whose opinion he conciliated by approving his play, and referring, with a deferential air, to his judgment. He lost; and, when paying, displayed a case well stocked with notes to a large amount, the sight of which seemed to establish his claims to the consideration of not a few of those around him. Lord Haverfordwest immediately invited him to his house; and Lord Derbyshire, in his most insinuating tone, told him that he would get him elected an honorary member of the Travellers' Club, where, as he evidently liked a rubber of whist, he might find one every night.

"Le Chevalier is a very agreeable man," said Lord Haverfordwest to me; "but a very indifferent whistplayer. I foresee that he will become popular in London; for he loses his money without, as is too often the case, losing his temper also; and pays his twenties and fifties with more sang-froid than other men exhibit in losing their guineas. Yes, he will be vastly popular, I foresee."

"What a very distingué personage your friend, le Chevalier de Carency, is," remarked Lady Godalming. "He is of the noble family De Carency, near Turin, is he not? How easy it is to see that he is one of l'ancienne noblesse; that ton de bonne compagnie, that air comme il faut, and, above all, the tact with which he insinuates, rather than pays, a compliment. Yes, these agrémens are only to be found in the descendants of the ancient noblesse." So, here is the fastidious Lady Godalming caught by

his flattery; and the supercilious Lord Haverfordwest, one of the most influential leaders of fashionable society, conciliated by this artful and designing man's affectation of being a bad whist-player, who loses his money freely, and can pay when he loses. Even so long ago as the period when he was at Florence, he had the reputation of being an adept at whist; consequently, I ain persuaded his careless play was all a ruse, to deceive those around him.

He found means to approach me, during the evening, and murmured in my ear,

"Beware how you venture to display the fierté and coldness with which you have treated me this day; for I have the power, ay, and the inclination too, if you provoke me to it, to take ample vengeance on you.”

While uttering this audacious threat, the shameless dissembler was smiling as gaily and as insinuatingly as though he were addressing to me the most elegant compliments. But, in spite of the indignation which his atrocious tyranny excited in me, I felt the dread influence he exercises over me; and that, though in a splendid home, and surrounded by the great and noble, I was only his puppet-the enslaved, debased concealer, if not the abettor, of the crimes of the foulest and most loathsome monster that ever disgraced mankind.

Every sound of his voice makes me tremble; every glance of his eye, like that of the basilisk, transfixes his victim. I know not how my agitation escaped general remark but Lord Annandale alone spoke of it; and he attributed it to my recent indisposition. I thought the party would never have terminated; and, when at length they went away, a violent hysterical attack, with which I was seized, alarmned my dear and kind husband so much, that he sent for my physician, who prescribed quiet and repose two blessings that are only for those free from guilt, and which never more will be mine on earth. Well might I have exclaimed, when the doctor was recommending restoratives, and gentle opiates,