'And pray, sir,' cries Mrs. Ellison,' what can be your objection to your lady's going to a place, which, I will venture to say, is as reputable as any about town, and which is frequented by the best company?'

went on, saying, 'For my own part, I fancy | power of expression by what you say; but it must be some lover of yours; some per- I will endeavour to show you, both my senson that hath seen you, and so is run mad sibility of such goodness, and my lasting with love. Indeed, I should not wonder if gratitude to it.' all mankind were to do the same. La! Mr. Booth, what makes you grave? why you are as melancholy as if you had been robbed in earnest. Upon my word, though, to be serious, it is a strange story; and as the girl tells it, I know not what to make of it. Perhaps it might be some rogue that intended to rob the house, and his heart failed him: yet even that would be very extraordinary. What, did you lose nothing, madam?'

He

'Nothing at all,' answered Amelia. did not even take the child's watch.' 'Well, captain,' cries Mrs. Ellison, I hope you will take more care of the house to-morrow; for your lady and I shall leave you alone to the care of it. Here, madam,' said she, here is a present from my lord to us; here are two tickets for the masquerade at Ranelagh. You will be so charmed with it! it is the sweetest of all diversions.'

May I be damned, madam,' cries Booth, if my wife shall go thither.'

'Pardon me, good Mrs. Ellison,' said Booth. As my wife is so good to acquiesce without knowing my reasons, I am not, I think, obliged to assign them to any other person.'

'Well,' cries Mrs. Ellison, if I had been told this, I would not have believed it. What, refuse your lady an innocent diversion, and that too when you have not the pretence to say that it would cost you a farthing.'

Why will you say any more on the subject, dear madam?' cries Amelia. All diversions are to me matters of such indifference, that the bare inclinations of any one for whom I have the least value, would at all times turn the balance of mine. I am sure, then, after what Mr. Booth hath said-'

'My dear,' cries he, taking her up hastily, Mrs. Ellison started at these words, and, 'I sincerely ask your pardon, I spoke inadindeed, so did Amelia; for they were spoke vertently, and in a passion-I never once with great vehemence. At length the thought of controlling you-nor ever would. former cried out with an air of astonish--Nay, I said in the same breath you would ment, Not let your lady go to Ranelagh, not go; and, upon my honour, I meant nosir?" thing more."

6

'No, madam,' cries Booth, 'I will not let my wife go to Ranelagh.'

You surprise me,' cries Mrs. Ellison. 'Sure you are not in earnest.'

Indeed, madam,' returned he, 'I am seriously in earnest. And what is more, I am convinced she would of her own accord refuse to go.'

Now, madam, said Mrs. Ellison, you are to answer for yourself; and I will for your husband, that, if you have a desire to go, he will not refuse you.'

'I hope, madam,' answered Amelia with great gravity, 'I shall never desire to go to any place, contrary to Mr. Booth's inclinations.'

'Did ever mortal hear the like?' said Mrs. Ellison; you are enough to spoil the best husband in the universe. Inclinations! what, is a woman to be governed then by her husband's inclinations, though they are never so unreasonable?'

'Pardon me, madam,' said Amelia, 'I will not suppose Mr. Booth's inclinations ever can be unreasonable. I am very much obliged to you for the offer you have made me; but I beg you will not mention it any more; for, after what Mr. Booth hath declared, if Ranelagh was a Heaven upon earth, I would refuse to go to it.'

'I thank you, my dear,' cries Booth; 'I do assure you, you oblige me beyond my

My dear,' said she, 'you have no need of making any apology. I am not in the least offended, and am convinced you will never deny me what I shall desire."

Try him, try him, madam,' cries Mrs. Ellison; I will be judged by all the women in town, if it is possible for a wife to ask her husband any thing more reasonable. You cannot conceive what a sweet, charming, elegant, delicious place it is.-Paradise itself can hardly be equal so it.'

'I beg you will excuse me, madam,' said Amelia; nay, I entreat you will ask me no more; for be assured I must and will refuse.-Do let me desire you to give the ticket to poor Mrs. Bennet. I believe it would greatly oblige her.'

'Pardon me, madam,' said Mrs. Ellison. 'If you will not accept of it, I am not so distressed for want of company as to go to such a public place with all sorts of people, neither. I am always very glad to see Mrs. Bennet at my own house; because I look upon her as a good sort of woman; but I don't choose to be seen with such people in public places.'

Amelia expressed some little indignation at this last speech, which she declared to be entirely beyond her comprehension; and soon after Mrs. Ellison, finding all her efforts to prevail on Amelia were ineffectual, took her leave, giving Mr. Booth two or three

sarcastical words, and a much more sarcas- | will tell you. And I think I shall then show tical look at her departure.

CHAPTER VI.

you, that however well you may know the
duty of a wife, I am not always able to be-
have like a husband. In a word, then, my
dear, the secret is no more than this; I am
unwilling you should receive any more

A scene in which some ladies will possibly think presents from my lord.'
Amelia's conduct exceptionable.

'Mercy upon me!' cries she, with all the marks of astonishment; 'what! a masquer

BOOTH and his wife being left alone, a so-ade ticket!' lemn silence prevailed during a few minutes. At last, Amelia, who though a good, was yet a human creature, said to her husband, Pray, my dear, do inform me, what could put you in so great a passion when Mrs. Ellison first offered me the tickets for this masquerade?'

'I had rather you would not ask me,' said Booth. You have obliged me greatly in your ready acquiescence with my desire, and you will add greatly to the obligation by not inquiring the reason of it. This you may depend upon, Amelia, that your good and happiness are the great objects of all my wishes, and the end I propose in all my actions. This view alone could tempt me to refuse you any thing, or to conceal any thing from you.'

'Iwill appeal to yourself,' answered she, 'whether this be not using me too much like a child, and whether I can possibly help being a little offended at it?'

'Not in the least,' replied he, 'I use you only with the tenderness of a friend. I would only endeavour to conceal that from you, which I think would give you uneasiness if you knew. These are called the pious frauds of friendship.'

'I detest all fraud,' says she; and pious is too good an epithet to be joined to so odious a word. You have often, you know, tried these frauds with no better effect than to tease and torment me.-You cannot imagine, my dear, but what I must have a violent desire to know the reason of words, which, I own, I never expected to have heard. And the more you have shown a reluctance to tell me, the more eagerly I have longed to know. Nor can this be called a vain curiosity; since I seem so much interested in this affair. If after all this, you still insist on keeping the secret, I will convince you I am not ignorant of the duty of a wife, by my obedience; but I cannot help telling you, at the same time, you will make me one of the most miserable of women,'

"That is,' cries he, in other words, my dear Emily, to say, I will be contented without the secret; but I am resolved to know it, nevertheless.'

'Nay, if you say so,' cries she, 'I am convinced you will tell me--Positively, dear Billy, I must and will know.'

Why, then, positively,' says Booth, 'I

'Yes, my dear,' cries he, that is, perhaps, the very worst and most dangerous of all. Few men make presents of those tickets to ladies, without intending to meet them at the place. And what do we know of your companion? To be sincere with you, I have not liked her behaviour for some time. What might be the consequence of going with such a woman to such a place, to meet such a person, I tremble to think. And now, my dear, I have told you my reason of refusing her offer with some little vehemence, and, I think, I need explain myself no farther.'

'You need not, indeed, sir,' answered she. Good Heavens! did I ever expect to hear this! I can appeal to Heaven, nay, I will appeal to yourself, Mr. Booth, if I have ever done any thing to deserve such a suspicion. If ever any action of mine, nay, if ever any thought had stained the innocence of my soul, I could be contented.

་

How cruelly do you mistake me,' said Booth, what suspicion have I ever shown?' 'Can you ask it,' answered she, ‘after what you have just now declared?'

If I have declared any suspicion of you,' replied he, or if ever I entertained a thought leading that way, may the worst of evils that ever afflicted human nature attend me. I know the pure innocence of that tender bosom, I do know it, my lovely angel, and adore it. The snares which might be laid for that innocence, were alone the cause of my apprehension. I feared that a wicked and voluptuous man, resolved to sacrifice every thing to the gratification of a sensual appetite with the most delicious repast, might attempt. If ever I injured the unspotted whiteness of thy virtue in my imagination, may hell'

'Do not terrify me,' cries she, interrupting him, with such imprecations. O Mr. Booth! Mr. Booth! you must well know that a woman's virtue is always her sufficient guard. No husband, without suspecting that, can suspect any danger, from those snares you mention-And why, if you are liable to take such things into your head, may not your suspicions fall on me, as well as on any other? for sure nothing was ever more unjust, I will not say ungrateful, than the suspicions which you have bestowed on his lordship. I do solemnly declare, in all the times I have seen the poor man, he

says,

'The wise too jealous are: Fools too secure.' Here Amelia burst into tears, upon which, Booth immediately caught her in his arms, and endeavoured to comfort her.-Passion, however, for a while, obstructed her speech, and at last she cried, 'O, Mr. Booth! can I bear to hear the word jealousy from your mouth?'

hath never once offered the least forward- to be on the surest side; for, as Congreve ness. His behaviour hath been polite indeed, but rather remarkably distant than otherwise. Particularly when we played at cards together. I don't remember he spoke ten words to me all the evening; and when I was at his house, though he showed the greatest fondness imaginable to the children, he took so little notice of me, that a vain woman would have been very little pleased with him. And if he gave them any presents, he never offered me one. The first, indeed, which he ever offered me was that which you in that kind manner forced me to refuse.'

Why, my love,' said Booth, will you so fatally misunderstand my meaning? how often shall I protest that it is not of you, but of him that I was jealous? If you could look into my breast, and there read all the most secret thoughts of my heart, you would not see one faint idea to your dishonour.'

All this may be only the effect of art,' said Booth. I am convinced he doth, nay, I am convinced he must like you; and my good friend James, who perfectly well knows the world, told me, that his lordship's I don't misunderstand you, my dear,' character was that of the most profuse in said she, 'so much as I am afraid you mishis pleasures with women; nay, what said understand yourself. What is it you fear? Mrs. James this very evening, "his lord--you mention not force, but snares. Is ship is extremely generous-where he likes." I shall never forget the sneer with which she spoke these last words.'

'I am convinced they injure him,' cries Amelia. As for Mrs. James, she was always given to be censorious; I remarked it in her long ago, as her greatest fault. And for the colonel, I believe he may find faults enow of this kind in his own bosom, without searching after them among his neighbours. I am sure he hath the most impudent look of all the men I know; and I solemnly declare, the very last time he was here, he put me out of countenance more than

once.'

'Colonel James,' answered Booth, may have his faults, very probably. I do not look upon him as a saint, nor do I believe he desires I should; but what interest could he have in abusing this lord's character to me? or why should I question his truth, when he assured me that my lord had never done an act of beneficence in his life, but for the sake of some woman whom he lusted after?"

not this to confess, at least, that you have some doubt of my understanding?-do you then really imagine me so weak as to be cheated of my virtue?-am I to be deceived into an affection for a man, before I perceive the least inward hint of my danger? No, Mr. Booth, believe me, a woman must be a fool indeed, who can have in earnest such an excuse for her actions. I have not, I think, any very high opinion of my judgment; but so far I shall rely upon it, that no man breathing could have any such designs as you have apprehended, without my immediately seeing them; and how I should then act, I hope my whole conduct to you hath sufficiently declared.'

'Well, my dear,' cries Booth, 'I beg you will mention it no more; if possible, forget it. I hope, nay, I believe, I have been in the wrong; pray forgive me.'

'I will, I do forgive you, my dear,' said she, if forgiveness be a proper word for one whom you have rather made miserable than angry; but let me entreat you to banish "Then I myself can confute him,' replied for ever all such suspicions from your mind. Amelia; for besides his service to you, I hope Mrs. Ellison hath not discovered the which, for the future I shall wish to forget, real cause of your passion; but, poor woand his kindness to my little babes, how in- man, if she had, I am convinced it would consistent is the character which James go no farther. Oh, Heavens! I would not gives of him, with his lordship's behaviour for the world it should reach his lordship's to his own nephew and niece, whose extreme ears. You would lose the best friend that fondness of their uncle sufficiently proclaims ever man had.-Nay, I would not, for his his goodness to them?--I need not mention own sake, poor man! for I really believe it all that I have heard from Mrs. Ellison, every word of which I believe; for I have great reason to think, notwithstanding some little levity, which, to give her her due, she sees and condemns in herself, she is a very good sort of woman.'

Well, my dear,' cries Booth, 'I may have been deceived, and I heartily hope I am so; but in cases of this nature, it is always good

would affect him greatly; and I must, I cannot help having an esteem for so much goodness. An esteem which, by this dear hand,' said she, taking Booth's hand, and kissing it, no man alive shall ever obtain by making love to me.'

Booth caught her in his arms, and tenderly embraced her. After which, the reconciliation soon became complete; and

Booth, in the contemplation of his happi- | while I stay there; if you desire it, I will

ness, entirely buried all his jealous thoughts.

CHAPTER VII.

not be an hour from you. I can make an hundred excuses to come home, or tell a real truth, and say, I am tired of the place. The bare going will cure every thing.'

Amelia had no sooner done speaking, than Booth immediately approved her advice, and readily gave his consent. He could not, however, help saying, that the shorter her stay was there, the more agreeable it would be to him; for you know, my dear,' said he, I would never willingly be a moment out of your sight.'

A chapter in which there is much learning. THE next morning, whilst Booth was gone to take his morning walk. Amelia went down into Mrs. Ellison's apartment, where, though she was received with great civility, yet she found that lady was not at all pleased with Mr. Booth; and by some hints which dropped from her in conversation, Amelia In the afternoon, Amelia sent to invite very greatly apprehended that Mrs. Ellison Mrs. Ellison to a dish of tea; and Booth had too much suspicion of her husband's undertook to laugh off all that had passed real uneasiness. For that lady declared, yesterday, in which attempt, the abundant very openly, she could not help perceiving good humour of that lady gave him great what sort of man Mr. Booth was. And hopes of success. though I have the greatest regard for you, madam, in the world,' said she, yet I think myself in honour obliged not to impose on his lordship, who, I know very well, hath conceived his greatest liking to the captain, on my telling him that he was the best husband in the world.'

Amelia's fears gave her much disturbance; and when her husband returned, she acquainted him with them; upon which occasion, as it was natural, she resumed a little the topic of their former discourse; nor could she help casting, though in very gentle terms, some slight blame on Booth, for having entertained a suspicion, which, she said, might, in its consequence, very possibly prove their ruin, and occasion the loss of his lordship's friendship.

Mrs. Bennet came that afternoon to make a visit, and was almost an hour with Booth and Amelia, before the entry of Mrs. Ellison.

Mr. Booth had hitherto rather disliked this young lady, and had wondered at the pleasure which Amelia declared she took in her company. This afternoon, however, he changed his opinion, and liked her almost as much as his wife had done. She did, indeed, behave at this time with more than ordinary gayety; and good humour gave a glow to her countenance that set off her features, which were very pretty, to the best advantage, and lessened the deadness that had usually appeared in her complexion.

But if Booth was now pleased with Mrs. Bennet, Amelia was still more pleased with Booth became highly affected with what her than ever. For when their discourse his wife said, and the more, as he had just turned on love, Amelia discovered that her received a note from Colonel James, inform-new friend had all the same sentiments on ing him that the colonel had heard of a vacant company, in the regiment which Booth had mentioned to him, and that he had been with his lordship about it, who had promised to use his utmost interest to obtain him the command.

The poor man now expressed the utmost concern for his yesterday's behaviour, said, 'he believed the devil had taken possession of him,' and concluded with crying out, sure I was born, my dearest creature, to be your torment.'

Amelia no sooner saw her husband's distress, than she instantly forbore whatever might seem likely to aggravate it, and applied herself with all her power to comfort him. If you will give me leave to offer my advice, my dearest soul,' said she, 'I think all might yet be remedied. I think you know me too well, to suspect that the desire of diversion should induce me to mention what I am now going to propose; and in that confidence, I will ask you to let me accept my lord's and Mrs. Ellison's offer, and go to the masquerade. No matter how little

that subject with herself. In the course of their conversation, Booth gave Mrs. Bennet a hint of wishing her a good husband, upon which both the ladies declaimed against second marriages, with equal vehemence.

Upon this occasion, Booth and his wife discovered a talent in their visitant, to which they had been before entirely strangers, and for which they both greatly admired her; and this was, that the lady was a good scholar, in which, indeed, she had the advantage of poor Amelia, whose reading was confined to English plays and poetry; besides which, I think, she had conversed only with the divinity of the great and learned Dr. Barrow, and with the histories of the excellent Bishop Burnet.

Amelia delivered herself on the subject of second marriages with much eloquence and great good sense; but when Mrs. Bennet came to give her opinion, she spoke in the following manner: I shall not enter into the question concerning the legality of bigamy. Our laws certainly allow it, and so, I think, doth our religion. We are now

debating only on the decency of it, and in | Amelia out of her wits, and not a little this light, I own myself as strenuous an ad- staggered Booth, who was himself no convocate against it, as any Roman matron temptible scholar.-He expressed great adwould have been in those ages of the com- miration of the lady's learning; upon which, monwealth, when it was held to be infamous. she said it was all the fortune given her by For my own part, how great a paradox her father, and all the dower left her by her soever my opinion may seem, I solemnly husband; and sometimes,' said she, "I am declare, I see but little difference between inclined to think I enjoy more pleasure from having two husbands at one time, and at it, than if they had bestowed on me what several times; and of this I am very con- the world would in general call more valuafident, that the same degree of love for a ble.'-She then took occasion, from the surfirst husband, which preserves a woman in prise which Booth had affected to conceive the one case, will preserve her in the other. at her repeating Latin with so good a grace, There is one argument, which I scarce to comment on that great absurdity, (for so know how to deliver before you, sir; but she termed it,) of excluding women from if a woman hath lived with her first hus- learning for which they were equally qualiband without having children, I think it fied with the men, and in which so many unpardonable in her to carry barrenness had made so notable a proficiency; for a into a second family. On the contrary, if proof of which, she mentioned Madam Dashe hath children by her first husband, to cier, and many others. give them a second father is still more unpardonable.'

'But suppose, madam,' cries Booth, interrupting her, with a smile, she should have had children by her first husband, and have lost them.'

Though Booth and Amelia outwardly concurred with her sentiments, it may be a question whether they did not assent rather out of complaisance, than from their real judgment.

CHAPTER VIII.

Ellison.

'That is a case,' answered she, with a sigh, which I did not desire to think of, and, I must own it, the most favourable light in which a second marriage can be Containing some unaccountable behaviour in Mrs. seen. But the scriptures, as Petrarch observes, rather suffer them than commend MRS. ELLISON made her entrance at the them; and St. Jerome speaks against them end of the preceding discourse. At her with the utmost bitterness.'-'I remember,' first appearance she put on an unusual decries Booth, (who was willing either to show gree of formality and reserve; but when his learning, or draw out the lady's) 'a very Amelia had acquainted her that she designwise law of Charondas, the famous law-ed to accept the favour intended her, she giver of Thurium, by which men who married a second time, were removed from all public councils; for it was scarce reasonable to suppose, that he who was so great a fool in his own family, should be wise in public affairs. And though second marriages were permitted among the Romans, yet they were at the same time discouraged; and those Roman widows who refused them, were held in high esteem, and honoured with what Valerius Maximus calls the Corona Pudicitiæ. In the noble family of Camilli, there was not, in many ages, a single instance of this, which Martial calls adultery:

'Quæ toties nubit, non nubit: adultera lege est.'
'True, sir,' says Mrs. Bennet, and Virgil
calls this a violation of chastity, and makes
Dido speak of it with the utmost detesta-
tion:

'Sed mihi vel Tellus optem prius ima dehiscat;
Vel Pater omnipotens adigat me fulmine ad umbras,
Pallentes umbras Erebi, noctemque profundam,
Ante, pudor, quam te violo, aut tua jura resolvo.
Ille meos, primum qui me sibi junxit, amores,
Ille habeat semper secum, servetque Sepulchro.'

She repeated these lines with so strong an emphasis, that she almost frightened

soon began to alter the gravity of her muscles, and presently fell in with that ridicule which Booth thought proper to throw on his yesterday's behaviour.

The conversation now became very lively and pleasant, in which Booth having mentioned the discourse that passed in the last chapter, and having greatly complimented Mrs. Bennet's speech on that occasion, Mrs. Ellison, who was as strenuous an advocate on the other side, began to rally that lady extremely, declaring it was a certain sign she intended to marry again soon. Married ladies,' cries she, 'I believe, sometimes think themselves in earnest in such declarations, though they are oftener perhaps meant as compliments to their husbands; but when widows exclaim loudly against second marriages, I would always lay a wager, that the man, if not the wedding-day, is absolutely fixed on.'

Mrs. Bennet made very little answer to this sarcasm. Indeed, she had scarce opened her lips from the time of Mrs. Ellison's coming into the room, and had grown particularly grave at the mention of the masquerade. Amelia imputed this to her being left out of the party, a matter which is often

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