though it pleases me when I do. But as I have been told, too, that you are very proud, I am sure you would wish to discard condescension from your vocabulary; so we will have no more of it."

All this while I was standing, and she went on therefore:

"Now sit down and talk to me, not as a fine lady, as perhaps I have been represented to you, but as one who loves ingenuousness wherever it can be found; so be as ingenuous as you please. To be so myself, however, I must tell you (here she looked at her pendule) that I have just one quarter of an hour, and no more, to give you, for I have an appointment at three with a very great lady who waits for nobody, and which, therefore, I must attend."

Who would not be encouraged by such a speech, and such demeanour ? and yet the very frankness of it abashed me; for it seemed to interdict all common-place matters, and I knew not enough of her, or perhaps was too desirous to say something agreeable, to know where to begin.

She saw this, and was probably amused, for she said, in a rallying tone,

"Come; why don't you take me at my word, for I know you can? You would not be so silent if you were either at Foljambe Park, or with your friend Mr. Granville."

At this I felt myself reddening uncomfortably, and stammered out,

"Though your ladyship will not permit the word condescension, I may at least say you are very good, which I am sure I feel you to be."

"I know not what you call good,” replied she; "but I have no scruple to say that Lord Castleton's and Mr. Granville's account of you, to say nothing of Mr. Hastings (O! how I waited to hear his daughter joined with him, but in vain), has given me an interest about you. I hear you are very romantic, though very natural; very proud, though very humble; in short, a contradiction, and I love contradictions, at least if no more than what I was wrapt up in when you were announced, in an author who I am also told you revere as a demi-god, and can say him by heart.”

At this she took up the play she was busy with on my arrival, and pointed out the passage that then had so much engaged her

"O! thou goddess,

Thou divine Nature, how thyself thou blazon'st
In these two princely boys! They are as gentle
As zephyr blowing below the violet,

Not wagging his sweet head: and yet as rough,
Their royal blood enchaf'd, as the rudest wind,
That by the top doth take the mountain pine,
And makes him stoop to the vale."

She read this with precision and feeling, adding, "but I must give you a various reading upon this,

proposed by Mr. Granville (for it was he who ap plied this passage to you), and said that for royal blood,' we must read De Clifford blood.' Is it so ?"

Though all this was very personal, I cannot say but I was charmed. I was pleased with the mere thought that I was of sufficient consequence for her to be occupied about me, and still more with her manner of letting me know it. I saw in her a woman of the very first breeding in the country; full of the most agreeable qualities, and, withal, the intimate friend of a person I had adored but despaired of; and yet condescending (for I must use the word) to be pleased in making a comparatively humble creature pleased with himself.

Her confidence excited mine; I threw off my constraint, and my mind gave itself up to the pleasure which a participation of congenial sentiments, when inequality is forgotten, never fails to produce.

This congeniality was here called forth by the play from which she had quoted the lines which she said Granville had applied to me; and, once upon Cymbeline, we soon fell upon other passages, and I had the happiness of finding that all I said of the beautiful character of Imogen met her own feelings in every point; and when the pendule struck three, she seemed sorry, saying, with peculiar grace, she was not surprised at all that Granville and Miss Hastings had said of me,

She, however, told me that Lord Castleton had informed her of all the tormenting difficulties in which I felt plunged, from being a stranger to the new world I was in-its manners and maxims-and, above all, as to the mysteries of what is called fashionable life. To be instructed in this, she told me with a smile, that Lord Castleton had asked leave to send me to her school, which, from the specimen of the scholar, she said she was very willing to allow.

"So, as you now know the school-room," added she," I shall hope to see you again. Besides, I may be a scholar as well as you; for while I teach you the beau monde, you may teach me Shakspeare; and now adieu, for I see I am summoned. There is not time even for a take-leave compliment."

The meaning of this was, that one of the royal coaches was at the door to take her to the palace, where she was in high favour, as well as place; and I proceeded to my little lodging in Green Street, with the sort of confused pleasantness which a man feels when he wakes from a busy and crowded, but very delightful dream.

CHAPTER V.

CONTAINING A VERY LEARNED

DISSERTATION

UPON FASHION, IN WHICH A LADY OF THE FIRST FASHION DISTINGUISHES HERSELF.

The plague of such antick, lisping, affecting fantasticoes. Why, is not this a lamentable thing, grandsire, that we should be thus afflicted with these strange flies, these fashion-mongers, who stand so much on the new form, that they cannot sit at ease on the old bench?

SHAKSPEARE.-Romeo & Juliet.

I TRUST that the picture of the delightful lady whom I attempted to set before my readers in the last chapter, has created the interest for her which she deserves.

Lord Castleton was pleased with my description of the intercourse I had with her, and still more with the account she gave of it herself.

"You cannot," said he, "cultivate her too much-that is, if Granville will permit you."

These words surprised me, for I thought more was meant than met the ear. It had occurred to me, as indeed may be remembered, that the only cause of Granville's power to resist Bertha was his heart being already occupied; and it now struck