of the degenerate De Montford than at this moment and never, gentle reader, did she deserve more the love and veneration due to virtue. But at this unlucky period he saw all things through a false medium; and nothing less than the romantic flights of Mrs. Harcourt could satisfy his inflamed imagination.

st

CHAP. XIII.

Speak to me home; mince not the general tongue : Name Cleopatra as she's called at Rome:

Rail thou in Fulvia's praise; and taunt my faults With such full licence, as both truth and malice Have power to utter."

SHAKESPEAR.

WHILE De Montford was thus suffering himself to be deluded by a connexion in which his passions, rather than his heart, misled him, his friend Mrs. Stanley, and her aunt, were watching with maternal tenderness and judicious care his poor sickly little boy. When he visited them, which he still continued to do, he felt all the gratitude and all the respect their characters demanded: and though to Mrs. Cunningham he was personally unknown, as she never received company of any kind; yet he heard from the children of

their improvement the good and clever instructress they had so fortunately met with. In these visits, he felt a momentary renewal of all his former feelings, interests, and opinions; but a weight hung upon his heart; and in the various fascinations of Arabella he found a forgetfulness of his sorrows.

But she was too much in love not to see and feel, though she entertained him, and he devoted a large share of his time to her, that she had not touched his heart; and too accurate an observer not to discover, that though her vivid descriptions of braving all for love fired his imagination, and kept pace with his impetuosity, he was not sufficiently explicit in naming her as the beloved object that could finish the vivid scene she was so successful in painting. Though her love, and her exertions to ensnare him, were augmented by this discovery, her feelings were now not totally devoid of jealousy.

Lord Valhurst, who held in the most complete disdain what is termed a man of pleasure, heard with proud contempt De Montford spoken of in that class: his frequent visits to Mrs. Stanley, which, together with all other scandal, had reached his lordship's ears through the medium of a confidential servant, had reached them, also, with as many additions and improvements as could well be fancied; and at length was added, that it had been whispered, the Major intended to marry Mrs. Stanley.

It was then that the almost only vulnerable part of his lordship was touched; and the fear of the De Montfords being allied to a woman who had kept a shop, induced him, after much consideration, to visit, and offer some advice, to his imprudent brother.

With this intention he surprised Lady Mary by a visit, whom, as well as De

After very little preface, he informed De Montford the purport of his visit.

"I know," said his lordship, "the ill office I take upon myself, in attempting to give advice; but, impelled by the sense of what I owe my family, I regard it in the light of a duty, and am therefore resolved to perform it faithfully and conscientiously. Of your ladyship's thanks and concurrence I cannot doubt," he continued, turning to Lady Mary, " in the advice I am inclined to hope will not be thrown away upon your son. If I am misinformed, Major de Montford, you will pardon one, stiffly bending his head; though I think the difference in our ages, and the relative situation in which I stand, as uniting in my person the representative of two noble and ancient families, give me, to a brother so much younger, a sort of right, if not to dictate, to advise."

"The advice, my lord," replied De Montford, "if kindly "if kindly given, I am not