e you may fafely join the duchefs's party. We will relinquish you, if you are called upon." The young lady, with some apology for quitting me, immediately followed Mrs. S to the card-room.

At the ufual hour of retiring I fought my companion, and her countenance spoke her loffes: fhe was agitated and flushed, and with reluctance liftened to my faying that I waited for her. In our way home, she obferved that I had been very fortunate in my refusal to play: " My compliance," fighed fhe," has coft me thirty guineas to-night." "I rejoice to hear it," ately preffing her hand:

cheap profit from it."

said I, affection"your leffon is She was filent.

"I wish," refumed fhe, "I had refused the duchefs's invitation for to-morrow evening." -"Nothing can be fo eafy," answered I with vivacity: "and were it difficult, you ought to do it." She was again filent, and we parted.

The next morning I faw her in the pumproom, arm in arm with the duchess, and instantly

ftantly marked her for one of the loo party. At the end of the season she had fome embarrassments with the trades-people, which circulated with the ufual celerity of Bath anecdotes; and the first advantage that the gained from her acquaintance with the duchefs, was the perfect indifference with which she met this difgrace. She had however paid largely for her initiation, and now boldly quitted the appellation of a dupe, to fuftain with firmnefs and an unabashed face the more difgraceful one of a duper, in which station fhe ftill holds an eminent place in the fashionable world.

You will easily detect the true cause for this adoption of a character fo contemptible, and you will perceive that there are other inducements befides avarice which lead a woman to the card-table.

This young woman was without even a tafte for the amufements of a card-table. She was extremely lively, and loved dancing: but to make one in the duchefs's card-party was an allurement which her vanity could

6

not

not refift, nor her refolution overcome. She faw not the fnare then ready for her, and which has held her captive ever fince in a state of degradation from which her rank in life cannot shelter her; for it does not prevent the honeft and upright from viewing her conduct with pity and reprobation.

Some apology for the lamentable predilection which your cousins have shown for the card-table may arife from the history of their unfortunate parents; and candour and charity may perhaps find in their prefent difpofition to tricking and cheating, more caufe for pity and compaffion than furprise.

Mrs. Stanley, the mother of our late guefts, was left an orphan at feventeen with a fortune of twenty thousand pounds. Her father appointed Mr. Palmerstone guardian and executor to his will; but the peculiar charge of her education and care of her perfon were given to his own fifter, a widow lady. This regulation was not made with

out

out judgment. Mrs. Falkland was a worthy woman, and loved her niece tenderly.

The first winter's introduction to the polite world in Dublin, the place of Mrs. Falkland's refidence, brought to the beautiful mifs Fairfax's notice and acquaintance the handsome and agreeable Mr. Stanley. He was then about twenty-three: his father had died when he was an infant, and a confiderable eftate had devolved to him, to which were annexed the favings of a long minority. His mother, whofe idol he was, enjoyed an ample jointure, which she spent in Dublin with the reputation of a generous and pleasant woman. Nature had indeed been as bountiful to Mrs. Stanley as it will be found fhe is to all her children; for fhe had bestowed on her a found mind and a good difpofition. But a neglected education had confined the one to the pleafures of good living and the card-table, and brought the other under the control of paffion and frivolous modes of life.

No mistakes, nor any weakneffes, how

ever,

ever, in Mrs. Stanley's character had been able to damp the spirit and talents of her fon. His understanding was acute, and his heart excellent. Under a wife and steady guidance, young Stanley would have been an honour to his country, and a bleffing to his family. Dazzled by the brilliancy of his parts, and the manly graces of his perfon, Mrs. Stanley had no enjoyment in his abfence, and, whilst a mere youth, gave him unlimited accefs to her purfe, and the amufements of her house and table: at fifteen he betted guineas on his mother's cards, and, with all the ardour natural to his mind, adopted a taste for play.

Thus prepared, he entered into the poffeffion of his own large fortune; and with all the characteristics of a young, generous, and unfufpecting Irishman, he invited rapacity, and opened his heart to treachery and fraud. He had already gone deeply in his mad career, when the charms of Charlotte Fairfax caught his attention, and gave to his ardent mind more honourable purfuits. His affi

duities