Miss Grandison, let me apply to you: maiden ladies open their hearts to one another. Know you whether Miss Byron has yet seen the man tơ whom she wishes to give her hand? Her aunt Selby writes to me, that she has not.'

MISS GR. We young women, madam, often know least of our own hearts. We are almost as unwilling to find out ourselves in certain cases as to be found out by others.-Speak, sister Harriet: answer for yourself.

[Was not this grievous, Lucy? And yet what ailed me, that I could not speak without hesitation? But this lady's condescending goodness-yet this wicked Sir Hargrave! His attempt, his cruel treatment of me, has made me quite another creature than I was.]

'My aunt Selby, madam, wrote the truth. To say, I wish not to marry for some time to come, may sound like an affectation, because I have ever honoured the state.-But something has happened that has put me out of conceit with myself, and with men too?

LADY D. With all men, child?—I will allow for a great many things in a weak mind that I will not in yours. I have had a hint or two about an insult, or I know not what, from Sir Hargrave Pollexfen, since I came to town; for I have asked after you, my dear: but what is that but a confirmation of your merits? What a disagreeable woman must she be whom but one man in the world could like!

But excuse me, Miss Byron, I have said abun. dance of impertinent things: I have gone further on this first visit than I intended. You must thank for this that ingenuous and open countenance, which confirms, at first sight, the character I had heard given by every body who spoke of you. I

shall see, perhaps, what your aunt Selby, to whom you refer, writes, when I get down. I shall soon be in town, as I said, for the rest of the winter; and then I will make myself mistress of your whole history from these ladies, and from yourself; and there shall end all my inquiries, and I hope, all my solicitudes, on an article that is next my heart. Mean time, adieu, my dear-Adieu.

She then, curtseying to all round, gave her hand to Mr. Reeves, who led her to her chair; leaving us all full of her praises.

MISS GR. (looking archly) I say nothing as to her particular errand, because I would not be too curious; and because you ask me no questions, Harriet.

LADY L. This must do, Miss Byron: who would not wish for such a mother?

HARRIET. Is the mother to be the principal inducement in such an article as this?

MISS GR. Why, my dear, do you pretend, in such an age of petit-maitres, to live single, till you meet with a man who deserves you?— But, Harriet, you must voluntarily open your heart to me. have a good deal of curiosity; and, whenever you are disposed to gratify it, will not withdraw my

attention.

HARRIET. I will read to you this moment, if you please, ladies, as to my sisters, what Lady D. wrote to my aunt Selby; and what my aunt answered on the occasion.

MISS GR. That's my best Harriet! I love to hear how and every thing about these sort of matters.

LADY L. These girls, Mrs. Reeves, delight in love subjects: there is a kind of enthusiasm in these matters that runs away with them.

MISS GR. Say you so, Lady L.? And pray,

had you ever any of this enthusiasm? and if you bad, did matrimony cure you of it?-See, Harriet! my sister has not been married many months; yet how quietly she now talks of the enthusiasm of love to us maidens !-Ah, my dear Lady L.! women, I see, have their free-masonry as well as menDon't you think so, Mrs. Reeves?

'A poor secret after all, I believe, on both sides,' whispered the lively lady, but loud enough for every one to hear what she said.

Lady L. called her a mad girl. But let us be favoured,' said she to me, with your communications.'

I pulled out the letters. I read the two first paragraphs in my aunt's letter to me entire; for they propose the matter and nothing else.

"What follows,' said I,' is full of love and care and so forth: but here is one paragraph more I can read to you.'

MISS GR. As much reserve as you please, sister Harriet. I am learning how to deal with you.

LADY L. Why that, Charlotte? No fear that you will tell us more than you have a mind we should know.-Regard not, therefore, this threatening, Miss Byron.

HARRIET. To own the truth, I cannot read every thing my aunt writes: but the Countess of D.'s proposal, and what relates to that, I will read, if you please.

MISS GR. What you will-Read what you will. I find we are not at present so well acquainted as we shall be hereafter.

What could Miss Grandison mean by that!

I read the last paragraph but one, in which my aunt proposes my coming down; and that I will either encourage the countess's proposal, or accept

of Mr. Orme; ending with the earnest desire of my friends to havé me married.

I then gave into Miss Grandison's hands the countess's first letter; and she read it out.

Were

She gave it me back, and thanked me. all women,' said she, 'capable of acting thus frankly, the sex would leave affectation to the men-monkeys. Remember, Harriet, that your openness of heart is one of the graces for which I principally admire you.'

LADY L. O the rogue!-Take care of her, Miss Byron! She tells you this to get out of you all your secrets.

Miss Grandison may easily obtain her end, madam. She need only tell me what she best likes I should be, and I must try to be that.'

MISS GR. Good girl! And take this along with you; that when you convince me, that you will not hide, I will convince you, that I will not seek. But what is next?

I then gave into her hand the copy of my aunt Selby's answer.

MISS GR. May I read it all?

HARRIET. If you please: the fondness of my aunt, and the partiality of

MISS GR. Away! away, Harriet!-No affectation, child!

She read it out. Both sisters praised the heart of the dear and thrice indulgent writer! and called her their aunt Selby.

I then gave Miss Grandison the countess's second letter. They were no less pleased with that than with the first.

MISS GR. But now your opinion of the proposal, child? Will you trust us with that? Have you a copy of what you wrote?

HARRIET. I kept a copy only of what immediately respected the proposal; and that because it was possible I might want to have recourse to it, as my aunt might, or might not, write further about it.

I took it out of my pocket-book, and gave it her to read.

"Thank you, child,' said she: 'I should have no curiosity if I did not love you.'

She read it out. It was the paragraph that begins with You will, upon the strength of what I have said,' &c.-ending with, 'such is my meaning.' -Luckily I had not transcribed the concluding sentence of that paragraph; having been ashamed of the odd words Hope of your hope.'

LADY L. But why should that be your meaning, my dear?

HARRIET. I added, I remember, that I was pained by the teasings of these men, one after another; that I never took delight in the airy adulation; and was now the more pained, because of the vile attempt of Sir Hargrave, which had given me a surfeit of the sex.

MISS GR. A temporary surfeit! It is over, I hope, by this time. But, my dear-And yet as I owe to your generosity the communication, I would not take occasion from it to tease you

HARRIET. Miss Grandison will oblige me, say what she pleases..

MISS GR. As you intend to marry-As your friends are very desirous that you should-As Lady D. is an excellent woman-As her son is, as men go, a tolerable man-As he is a peer of the realm; which is something in the scale, though it is not of weight, singly considered-As his estate is very considerable-As you may have your own terms-As you like not any one of your numerous admirers :