tablished between them. An intercourse which had now insensibly grown into an intimacy, much more congenial to the disposition of Charles than to that of Matilda, who in the character of the Miss Hunters detected much that she disapproved, and in the father's a great deal that she detested. But she was passive to a fault; and perceiving it to be her husband's pleasure to associate with this family, she had been contented to resign, for the sake of promoting that pleasure in him, the society of many persons much better approved of by her heart and her understanding. "It was something," she thought "though but little gained, to preserve him from the still more, dangerous company than even the Hunters, of those dissipated and idle young men, who, once she knew, and she feared they had much oftener than she knew, seduced him to the gaming table-a place of all others that of which she reasonably entertained the greatest horror. It was not despair, it was conviction, which, after more than two years of trial, compelled her often to assure herself that her wedded lot was to be one of unhappiness; and that nothing but submission on her side could preserve it from becoming also one of degrading altercation and perpetual discord.

To submit therefore was her daily struggle; for seldom indeed was there a day in which this resignation, not only of her will but of her judgment, was not called upon to exercise itself, less by the perverseness than the indiscretion of her husband. But, habitual as it was become to her to yield her own opinion to his, she could not hear of the project he had been prevailed upon by Mr. Hunter to adopt for

paying his debts, without doing her utmost to dissuade him from it.

"Let us part with every thing we possess, Charles,” she said; "and upon the fortune which is settled upon me let us retire, and try to live as well as we can, rather than involve yourself in such certain ruin as must follow the borrowing money upon these exorbitant terms. You must pay it some time or other,

and then what is to become of us?"

"But I am going to retrench-I am going to save money for the purpose of paying it; in short, Matilda, Hunter has fully convinced me that I am right, and in fact the thing is-all but I believe it is done." He could not make the acknowledgment without some confusion, for he felt how unjustly he had behaved towards the faithful and affectionate counsellor then before him, not only in acting contrary to her advice, but in making a mockery of her opinion, by asking it when he confessed it was too late to follow it. She had never, since her marriage, been more hurt, or more angry with him; but she restrained as much as possible the expression of her emotions ; she only said, “In that case, it was not worth while to ask me any opinion about it; and for fear she should be impelled to utter more, she hastened from the room.

Thus for the present, his affairs being rather patched up than mended, and Charles delivered from immediate embarrassment, it was, Matilda expected, a thing next to impossible that he could remain in London at the time of Epsom races without appearing there.

It was not merely the images of dust, and heat,

and noise, and every thing that was most in déscordance with her own quiet temperament, that made her sicken at the thought of having this annual martyrdom of nerves inflicted upon her; it was the recollection of the enthusiasm with which Charles entered into the sport that was going forward, and the fate which, as an enthusiast, pretty generally followed him of playing a losing game.

But as the day previous to the races arrived, and she heard nothing of the usual project of a barouche and four horses, the charm of driving which, appeared to him a sort of elysium, and usually furnished a subject to reckon upon for a week beforehand, she hoped that his late ruminations had really produced some benefit; and, in expelling from his thoughts a little of their frivolity, had induced him. to forego for the present all imprudent and unecessary expenses.

He had even kept himself at home every evening to the number of three, since he had been employed in ascertaining the state of his affairs; he had remarked once or twice to her, that he believed he could make himself very happy always to pass his time in this quiet, domestic manner; and, not till the afternoon of the fourth day, had he betrayed any symptoms of weariness at such an unchanging state of repose. Then, after dinner, he first began to exhibit slight aspirations after something different; and Matilda, indulgent and considerate, though somewhat disappointed to find how very short-lived were his domestic pleasures, could not find it in her heart to answer with coldness or repugnance to his wish, that she would accompany him to visit the Hunters.

"But don't let us stop to supper, Charles," she said, as with a willing air, but a sinking heart, she was leaving him to go and equip herself for the walk.

"Oh, no-certainly not," he replied, "we will merely spend a quiet hour or two, and home again. That is, after all, the most agreeable kind of visiting; that is the style I shall adopt for the future."

Matilda was obliged to turn away her head to conceal a smile, which she would not upon any consideration that he should have seen; for though the 'idea of Charles visiting in London, "in a quiet manner, just to spend a rational hour or two, and home again," was a thought that would have provoked a laugh if she had dared to indulge it, she would have grieved, by the faintest indication, to betray any incredulity of an alteration in his habits, so very much apropos to every thing she could wish.,

When she had quite composed her countenance, she replied to his remark, "I am very glad to hear you say so; it is the only sort of visiting that ever did or ever can give me pleasure."

"But you must procure a different set of associates," she thought, as she tied on her hat; "not such persons as those we are now going to visit. Rational hours, according to my conception of them, are not to be enjoyed in that circle."

"I am ready, Charles," said she, as she returned to the room.

He looked at her a few moments without speaking, and with a smile, but with an expression which she fancied implied something of disapprobation of her dress.

"Do you see any thing about me that you do not like?" she inquired.

"No, no-you are very neatly-very nicely dressed. You always are-but--"

"But what, my dear Charles ?"

"The Hunters, you know, are always so very fashionable-so very much dressed."

"Well, then, I will go and make myself a little smarter; only I thought, as there would be only ourselves, and perhaps we might not find them at home_"

"Oh yes, we shall. Did I not tell you I saw Mr. Hunter this morning, and he asked me to bring you this evening?"

“No, you said nothing about it."

"Then it escaped my memory to mention it. But go, love, and furbelow yourself out a little; we may meet two or three people; I don't know that we shall, though.".

When Matilda, according to his desire, had furbelowed herself out, as he called it, she once more descended to the dining-room, and there she found him in his full visiting costume; a coach was called, and coming by degrees to the right reading of the affair, she began to understand that they were going to meet an arranged party: a circumstance of which Charles, from motives she could very well comprehend, had not chosen to inform her.

But to obviate any necessity for measures of this kind for the future, she said to him, just before the coach stopped at Mr. Hunter's door, "if you had told me, Charles, exactly how the case was, and that were going by invitation, and were to meet a party,