Here's another letter to her: she bears the purse too, she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. I will be cheater to them both, and they shall be exchequers to me; they shall be my East and West Indies.

Merry Wives of Windsor.

As fate had hitherto been so unpropitious to young Webberly, and his anxious mama, in their personal interviews with Miss Seymour, they decided, at their next tÊte À tÊte, which was generally of a much more friendly nature than their public communications, that he should not any longer delay making his proposal in form, which Mrs. Sullivan could not believe she would hesitate in accepting; for, like the monkey in the fable, she thought nothing equalled her own progeny. On this occasion at least, her son implicitly followed her directions; he was aware that his finances were so reduced, he should never be able to stand another London campaign, without some new resource, and the gaming table had lately not been as productive a one as he usually found it. With the assistance of his sisters, he therefore composed a letter full of darts, and wounds, and happiness, and agitation, and gratitude, and eternity; and "used the arts that lovers use;" in hopes, by the superabundance of his professions, to compensate for his real indifference. For, in truth, he cared only for Selina's fortune, as he actually loved Miss Wildenheim, as much as it was in nature for so selfish a being to love any body. And though he was equally as incapable of justly appreciating her character as of understanding Selina's, yet her talents were so veiled by the calm dignity of the manners, that he felt less intimidated by them than by the brilliant vivacity of Selina's. But, in anticipating the possibility of becoming Miss Seymour's husband, he fully, in imagination, indemnified himself for the temporary mortifications her undoubted superiority now occasioned him, by the magnanimous resolution of treating her, when she became his wife, with all possible contempt; believing, as many husbands do in similar situations, that an ostentatious display of authority will persuade others, that the dependent is really the inferior being, like the boy on the ladder, who tramples on that which alone supports him.

Selina and Lady Eltondale were together, when the Viscountess was presented with an enormous packet, sealed with a coat of arms as ample in its expansion as it was modern in its date; "Good Heavens!" exclaimed her Ladyship, holding up the cover, "arms! and the man; here, Selina, the envelope only is for me: your nouveau riche admirer requests I will present to you this inimitable manuscript." Selina hastily ran over the composition, which had cost some hours to indite; and then, no longer able to keep her countenance, burst into a hearty fit of laughter, while her cheeks mantled with blushes, "Well, at last, Lady Eltondale, here is the promised proposal: I had no idea what a real love letter was—pray read it." "No my dear; excuse me, my dear: all such tender professions are similar, they 'consistent À dire aux femmes avec un esprit lÉger et une ame de glace, tout ce qu'on ne croit pas, et tout ce qu'on voudrait leur faire croire[7].' I am much more curious to know what your answer will be."—"A refusal undoubtedly," replied Miss Seymour; "but I must request of you, Lady Eltondale, to convey it for me." "You know, Selina, you are your own mistress; it is unnecessary for me to offer any advice." Selina felt the rebuke; but before she could make any apology, her aunt continued, "In this instance I think you right: title, my dear, is the only thing to marry for; it is terrible to be obliged to purchase one's place in society; and even the richest commoners are only valued in proportion to their expenditure; whereas a nobleman maybe as poor and as shabby as he pleases, his wife must always have precedence." "But surely, Lady Eltondale, you would not have me marry for precedence." "It is what ninety-nine girls out of a hundred marry for," resumed the Viscountess, with perfect sang froid; "and as I do not see much difference in your character from that of the rest of your sex, I conclude what makes others happy would satisfy you." "I think," replied Selina, hesitatingly, "I should never be happy, unless I married a man whom I loved and esteemed, and who, I was very sure, loved me." "Ha! ha! ha! very sentimental, indeed! Child, that would do admirably for a novel, but in real life, take my word, such nice distinctions are but little attended to: fine feeling is an essence, that soon evaporates when exposed to common air; it is generally adviseable to have something substantial at bottom, to fill up the phial when the effervescence subsides." "But, is it possible, Lady Eltondale, that you would have me marry a man I could not love or esteem, or who did not love me?" inquired Selina, in a tone of gravity more approaching to censure, than her noble aunt had ever before heard her use. "Pian! piano! carissima! half your proposition is defensible; and to that half I willingly accede. When a woman marries, the only thing necessary for her to be assured of, is her own heart, or rather her own mind. Every man, when he asks your hand, will certainly profess to love you; time and experiment can only prove his sincerity, or his steadiness;—but you, with all Mrs. Galton's philosophy in your head, must acknowledge, that all a woman's comfort in life depends on her not knowing the pangs of repentance." "Assuredly." "Well then, a woman who marries for love, generally sacrifices nine tenths of her life to a passion, that can, at best, last but a few months; and spends her remaining years in regretting her 'fond dream:' but she who calculates well before she marries, and weighs calmly the pour and contre of the lot she chooses for life, can, at all events, never repent the choice, which she made deliberately. But, however, why should we cavil about words, when there is not a chance of our ever dissenting in action?" Then reaching out her beautiful hand to Selina, with a bewitching smile, "Come, my love," added she, "tell me what I am to say for you to your inamorato." And then, by Selina's dictation, she returned a polite, but positive refusal to the obsequious Webberly.

The time now approached for Lord and Lady Eltondale's leaving London, if so might be called that removal of their physical bodies to another scene of action, where their habits, their pursuits, and their associates remained the same. The Viscountess had not yet completed the annual circle of dissipation, and it was therefore determined, that while Lord Eltondale returned home alone, her Ladyship and Selina should, by a visit to Cheltenham, protract for a still longer time their return to the comparative retirement of Eltondale. Of course the due preparation for this new scene of gaiety served as an excuse for renewed visits to the whole circle of shops. In one of these expeditions Lady Eltondale had left Selina at Mrs.——'s, in Bond Street, while she paid a visit in the neighbourhood; and Selina was just in the act of trying on a bonnet, that the officious milliner declared was supremely becoming, when her ears were suddenly assailed by the loudest tone of Mrs. Sullivan's discordant voice, "Yes, it be wastly becoming, to be sure; but, for my part, I thinks a little servility and policy, much more becoming to a young lady, be she never so much of an airy-ass. Aye, Aye, Miss Seymour, you may stare and gobble; but it's to you, and of you, I'm a speaking." "Of me, ma'am?" returned the half frightened girl. "Yes, Miss, of you, with all your looks of modesty and ingeniousness;—but in my day, whenever a young lady got a love letter from a young man, she never lost no time in supplying to him; and, for my part, I think a purling answer to a civil question would never do nobody no harm, if it was the queen herself, in all her state of health." "If you allude to a letter from Mr. Webberly"—"To be sure I do," interrupted the zealous parent, "what else should I delude to? And if you did receive Jack's pistol, Miss Seymour, why didn't ye condescend to answer his operation yourself?" "I thought, my dear madam, Lady Eltondale could express my regrets much better than I could." "Aye! Aye! Lady Eltondale, that's it—I'll tell ye vat, Miss Seymour—that 'ere Lady Eltondale vill make a cat's paw of you, if ye don't mind. As to my Jacky, he doesn't care for your refusal a brass farthing—but ye may go farther, and fare worse—he's healthy and wealthy, as the saying is; and he's not a man for a girl to throw over her shoulder—ye mayn't meet such a carowzel as his, every day in the veek.—But now I'll tell ye vat, once for all—ye see me and mine be a-going to Ireland; and it may so be, that ve may never see each other no more.—Now, ye see, I always respected your old father, and so out of compliment to him, I'll just give you a piece of my mind; and that is, that that Lady Eltondale, with all her valk-softly airs, has some kind of a sign upon you, depend upon it, or she'd never take all the trouble she does about ye, for it's not in her nature to do it for mere affection to you or your father either; and that 'ere sheep-faced Mr. Sedley, with all his aperient indifference, and no shambles (nonchalance), as they call it; he's playing the puck with you too, I can see that, fast enough; and so, now, as I have given you varning, and wented my mind a little, I'll just shake hands with you, for old acquaintance sake." The reconciliation was scarcely effected, before Lady Eltondale returned for Selina, who most joyfully escaped from her soi-disant friend. She casually mentioned the rencontre to the Viscountess, but did not mention the hints she had received; thus showing to her instructress her first essay in the practice of her own lessons in the art of dissimulation. By nature Selina's disposition was candid, even to a fault. For she was not only willing to confide all her actions, all her thoughts, to those she loved; but so necessary did she feel it to her happiness to be able to repose all her feelings, and even the responsibility of her conduct, on the bosom of another, that she would have preferred having an indifferent friend to being deprived of a confidant. But her intercourse with Lady Eltondale had already, in some degree, seared her best feelings. She had already, even then, acquired that general anxiety to please, which appertains more to vanity than to benevolence, and which never fails, in time, to wither the finer sensibilities of the soul. The natural superiority of her talents enabled her, to discover the true character of those she associated with. But even her penetration was dangerous to her purity. She saw hypocrisy was the means, and self-interest the end, pursued by all: even the stronger passions were brought under their control: and in being convinced, that in the crowd that surrounded her there was no individual she could love, she experienced a chasm in her heart, which left it more open to the reception of those petrifying principles, that Lady Eltondale so sedulously inculcated. At this moment, in Selina's history, she stood on that narrow line, which separates vice and virtue. Her avidity of praise, by teaching her how best to improve and exercise her talents, had as yet but increased her charms; and her distrust of others first taught her to exercise her own judgment. Circumstances were still to decide, whether her strengthening reason would serve to control the affections of her heart, or whether the school of stoicism, in which she was now entered, would entirely eradicate its better feelings: whether her natural volatility was to be corrected by reflection, or matured into coquetry by artifice: in short, whether the dormant seeds of a rational education would finally spring up in the very hotbed of fashion, which called forth the premature weeds of folly and extravagance; or whether the intoxicating incense of flattery, aided both by the precept and example of the designing Viscountess, would destroy them in the bud, and offer up one more heartless victim as a sacrifice to that world, which but repays with present scorn and future repentance the devotion of its wretched votaries.