recognized in spite of her precautions, and Wright thought that a titled traveller would swell his list and his bill at the same time. It was remarked with wonder, that all her servants had been fully settled with and paid off by the young Captain, (all officers, when travelling, are called so this side the water; on the other side, military rank goes by the purse; and if gold is given to the servants at Dessein's or Quillac's, it is mon Colonel, at least) and that the two footmen who rode behind in the dicky, were discharged at Dover.

"This was deep enough," observed Lady Claver; and officiously went and informed her robe-maker, that if she used expedition she might likely enough catch Lady Lydia ere she embarked, or by following her over in the next packet get some arrangement, being the first in the field. This maneuvre, however, failed, and Lady Claver, by over-doing her old trade of defamation, at last brought on a criminal information, to avoid which she fled to Bel

gium, and remained there in fear and trembling, during the remnant of her contemptible life.

Our hero was much hurt at the dry manner of his old companion and brother officer's letter: he saw clearly that he had lost a friend by his excessive imprudence and vanity; and he fancied, the next time he was on guard, that Colonel Leadon behaved to him with unusual coldness and reserve. Au reste, the story of Lady Lydia's flight, ruin, and love-disappointment lasted only a few days, to give place to fresher matter. The abduction of a ward in Chancery; the elopement of a married lady in high life, leaving a distracted husband, and a number of lovely daughters almost in infancy, the one to bear the gnawing pangs of ill-requited love and public offensive pity; the others to inherit that shame which they never merited, and those impediments in the way of forming an honourable union which a mother's misconduct has entailed upon them; or vice versa, My Lord, or the Honourable Mr. Polygam's ruin

ing a girl at boarding-school, and breaking his Lady's heart; together with the flight of hundreds, ruined by the expenses of a winter-have no more effect upon the nobles and fashionables who can stand their ground, than a snow-storm has on a brazen pillar, or, as the showman says, "Little boys shooting marbles against the Rock of Gibraltar." And here might very properly be added the accompanying showman's slang, "Boys, don't play with the monkeys," since the monkeys who act in this farce of "The Road to Ruin" are very dangerous to play with, and a rustic youth is very likely to be bit by them. The next tale of wonder was Lady Panamar's "At home," from which an elopement took place, and which will come in in its proper time and place.

Herbert Greenlaw was all this time miserable; yet he concealed this state of suffering by the most extensive extravagance and dissipation. The only proper duty which he performed was being constant in writing to Emma, who, living in the

retirement which she did, was wholly ignorant of the intrigues and adventures of the town.

The expenditure of the young Guardsman knew no bounds: he had horses on the turf; belonged to all the Clubs; played nightly; abandoned his sober habits; and drank very hard. It may be observed, that female society not only refines a man, but attractively draws him off from coarse pursuits and from pernicious habits. The conversation of well-informed women has a peculiar charm; Cicero himself felt the benefit of it and it certainly is more becoming to see a man of quality or fashion quit the dinner-table to give his arm to a fine woman going to the Opera, French Play, Almack's, or to a celebrated performer's Benefit Concert, than to behold him flushed and cloudy at the same time in complexion and intellect, adjourning to a gaming-table, or to the orgies of a bacchanalian supper, terminating either in private play, (of all play the worst,) or in the watch-house.

Yet to this did our youth come at last: there

was no expensive pastime into which he did not plunge; he even scattered his money to pugilists, although he abhorred the diversion of the ring, which was quite at variance with the education which he had received, and to his debut in life; and he kept a yacht, although he was always sea-sick, even in crossing the Channel, and although he knew as much about seamanship, nay, even the handing or trimming a sail, steering a boat, or feathering an oar, as a donkey does about an air on the flute. But none of this was natural—it was all affected, assumed-its purpose was to fly from self; and as it procured fame and notoriety, the mother was blind to the errors of her son.

Not so with the officers of his regiment, they saw and dreaded his approaching ruin; and on his giving a splendid repas du corps, Colonel Leadon refused to attend, and requested to see him the next day, when he besought him to ponder ere it was too late; to reduce his esta blishment; to give up the gaming-table; to