duities pleased her, and he won her confent, with that of her aunt, to apply to your grandfather for her hand. Mr. Palmerstone was neither a stranger to young Stanley's propensity to gaming, nor to the depredations which had already embarrassed him. The refult of this application to the uncle and prudent guardian of Charlotte Fairfax was a refufal of his overtures, accompanied with a manly and frank communication of the motives on which that refufal was folidly grounded, Mr. Stanley endeavoured to remove this obftacle; but your grandfather told him, that his oppofition was, and would ever be, inflexible to a man impelled by his paffions and his affociates to effect his own ruin; and that the time would inevitably arrive, when he would acknowledge the integrity to which he owed the lofs of a woman whom he loved, and whom he now folicited to fhare that ruin.

Stanley's high spirit rofe at this rebuke: but the decided character and cool firmness

of your grandfather were happily qualified

to

to meet his impetuofity; and they parted, with their refpective refolutions and cold civility. Mr. Stanley did not, however, relinquifh his hopes; and unfortunately, favoured by Mrs. Falkland, and warmly fupported by his mother's intereft with Charlotte, he prevailed upon her, still à minor, to marry him.

My father was fenfibly hurt by this imprudent ftep. He had been anxiously explicit with his ward and her aunt, and in the most tender and parental terms had cautioned them to refufe Stanley's vifits. They had engaged to do fo, and on their promife he relied when he returned to London. Juftly offended by the conduct of a niece whom he affectionately loved, all correspondence was dropped for a time. He was however called upon, in confequence of his truft, to an interview with the young couple; and Stanley, with the generofity natural to him, coincided with my father in his wife plan of fecuring to the children of the marriage the half of

their mother's fortune, and fettling the re

fidue on her for her life. This duty performed, Mr. Palmerflone, with forrow, left Mrs. Stanley to the fate which the had fo imprudently fought.

For fome years the experienced all the difficulties belonging to the fluctuating fortune of defperate gamblers. Revelry and abundance were linked with defpondence and want, and alternately ruled in her houfe. Stanley was now the father of five children, whom he loved; and his wife, who ftill retained an influence in a heart which no→ thing could harden to indifference for her, was now approaching her fixth confinement. He returned home one night from his customary haunts, defpair in his heart, and all its horrors depicted on his countenance. He rushed franticly into the apartment where his anxious wife was watching his return with apprehenfive forebodings. He gazed on her in convulfive agony, and, throwing himself with violence on the floor, groaned, " Charlotte, you are a beggar!"

He

He fainted, and, in a state of infenfibility, was conveyed to his bed. On the following day Mrs. Stanley was delivered of a dead child, and herself expired on the third.

Mr. Stanley was thus awfully awakened from his delufion. The blow that annihilated every domeftic comfort roused the dormant powers of his mind. In the anguifh and ficknefs which nearly brought him to the grave, he remembered his children, and with manly fortitude embraced thofe duties which he owed to them. His integrity fuggefted the most honourable means of extricating them from the ruin which hung over them. His creditors did juftice to a man who threw himself and his concerns on their mercy, and who voluntarily yielded up that which knavery and chicane could have withheld. From his once flourishing fortune they allowed for his fupport not fo many hundreds as his rent-roll had contained thousands; and Mr. Stanley retired from his fplendid establishment, which was given up, to feek shelter

with his mother for his children and himfelf, till he could fettle his future plans in life.

After mature deliberation, he refolved to retire into the country with his family. For this purpose he folicited from his mother the use of a large manor-houfe which was included in her jointure, and fome land near it, which he had long confidered as an excellent fubject for agricultural specula

tion.

Mrs. Stanley had not met the misfortunes of her beloved fon with indifference. She was tenderly attached to her daughter, and had unfeignedly lamented her death. She befought him with the moft earnest entreaties to commit the children to her charge, and to feek, in a way more suitable to his birth and talents, that fortune which had fo cruelly escaped him. Stanley firmly faid that he was not feeking fortune, but peace; and that it was only in retirement that he should expect it. The manor-house was a hundred miles from Dublin. Mrs.

Stanley