Agnes, accustomed to dress in a style of simple elegance only, took up a piece muslin which appeared to her suited to the purpose, and, according to her custom, when she attended Lady Priscilla in a shopping jaunt to Penzance, was preparing to ask its price per yard, when she heard Miss Beachcroft demand of the milliner, what would be nearly the amount of a dress about which they were consulting? "Why, I think, Misses, as you are my established customers," replied Mrs. B-, "I could make it up for about ninety guineas.' • "What, trimmings and all?" said Miss Beachcroft. "Yes, Miss, at least the difference will not be considerable." "Well, I will have it then," said Miss Beachcroft; "but be sure you follow my instructions, or I shall not endure it; but I will not go above the ninety guineas, remember that." This conversation occasioned Agnes, in some confusion, to drop to the ground the muslin she had taken up. Miss Beachcroft *demanded of her whether she had yet chosen? and Agnes rerlying in the negative, "well then," said she, " let me choose for you, and I am sure you will admire my || taste."-She then again turned over the silks, muslins, and laces, and at length fixed upon one to her taste.-" You will have this Agnes;" said she. -" The young lady will have this, Mrs. B-," said she with out waiting the assent of Agnes, "you will have the goodness to make it up, and send it home the same time that you send mine. But pray what will it come to? "Why, Miss," said Mrs. B--, " it is rather an expensive dress, as it will take an immensity of lace to cover the slip. I really cannnot tell you, Miss, what it may amount to, as from the uncertainty in these things we are careful never to fix the price lest we should lose." "But tell us nearly," said Miss Beach eroft; "come my dear Mrs. B--, make haste, for we are going to the review. Will it come to much more than an hundred guineas?" "No, Miss, not much more." "Well, then, let it be made up." "Stop, for Heaven's sake," said Agnes, taking the arm of Miss Beachcroft; "how am I ever to pay for this, I have not twenty pounds about me?" "And I have not twenty shillings," added Miss Beachcroft, "and yet you hear what I have ordered. These things are necessaries, my dear, and must be had, though they were never paid for. And the woman, though a little extravagant, is not unreasonable, she can wait I assure you.Well, Mrs. B--," continued she, will be punctual with both the dresses;" and with these words she followed her mother to the coach. you They now drove immediately to the review. -Agnes was never more dissatisfied at her irresolution, she remembered to have often heard Lady Priscilla declaim against that fashionable extravagance which would lavish on a dress or a trinket what would support almost for their lives one or more poor families.-Miss Beachcroft, however, talked with so much volubility about the beauty of the dress, and the distinguished taste of Mrs. B--, that Agnes was absolutely shamed out of her penitence. "You will look so beautiful in it, Agnes, for I have inatched it to your complexion. The slip is a pale-pink, which will be rendered still more pale as it is reflected through the lace. I can assure you, my dear, that there is more art than you imagine in arranging a fancy dress. And if I was a prime minister's lady, I would give Mrs. B-- a place or a pension for her taste." Agnes suffered herself at length to be overpowered by these arguments, and by a firm resolution to be guilty of no second act of a similar nature, reconciled this first concession to her mind. They had now gained the scene of the review. Sir George, who was one of the Colonels, obtained permission for their carriage to enter into the centre of the ground marked out. They had thus a full view of the whole line. The day was fine, and the sun shining on the polished steel of the swords and musquets, and the splendid regimentals of the several corps, composed a scene of unequalled splendour. The effect was heightened by the number of men, drums beating, colours flying, every thing, in a word, which could animate and exhilarate. This was indeed a day of enjoyment to Agnes. The King shortly entered upon the parade. How happy, thought Agnes, must be such a King, surrounded with such a people; with what cheerful hearts, what sincere affection, what ardent loyalty is he received by the thousands around him. Happy monarch, happy people. Several gentlemen rode up to the carriage with compliments to Lady Beachcroft upon her return to town. Amongst these her Ladyship made a party to dinner after the review, and the play in the evening. Agnes could scarcely repress her surprise at the unrestrained m manner in which Miss Beachcroft gave and returned their raillery. A young officer, in particular, seemed so peculiarly gratified with her reappearance in the world, that Agnes almost imagined him her lover, only that she scarcely knew how to reconcile this conjecture with her declared engagement to Sir Tony. It was not till a late hour that they left the Park. Agnes had the envied honour of peculiar notice from more than one of the royal family. The royal carriage, passing that of Lady Beachcroft, Agnes, in the eagerness of youthful curiosity, regarded it with such fixed attention, that the King could not avoid looking in turn at the lovely girl, and remarked her uncommon beauty to the general officers who rode by his side. Every one, as if by one motion, self to an officer amongst the company, told him to take the head of the table. One of the company inquired after the health of Sir George. -" I expected him to dinner," replied Lady Beachcroft, "for he was invited; but he is gone elsewhere I suppose." Agnes could not but stare."This is indeed the mode," said she. The greater part of the company were in high spirits, and Lady Beachcroft, according to custom, when in her proper sphere, was the life and soul of all around her. Agnes, Miss Beachcroft, and herself were the only ladies. This appeared somewhat strange to Agnes. The conversation was still more strange and scarcely in some of its parts intelligible, so full was it of the jargon of the day. "Who was that d-d figure of a tun," said Captain Gorget, (a Captain in the Guards,) addressing himself to Miss Beachcroft; "that witch of Endor, in the next coach to your Ladyship's mother's?Damme, if her looks did not petrify me to stupidity. I could not shut my mouth for wonder, by G-d." "For shame," said Miss Beachcroft with an encouraging smile, "why, that lady is the Duchess of M--, she whose charities are as far-famed as those of the Man of Ross." "Why don't she shut herself up in one of her old castles then," continued Gorget, "and not come forth to frighten us honest looked in the face of Agnes, who perceiv-fellows. The d-1 brimstone me, if I have ing herself an object of this general gaze, In her invitation to her guests, as an excuse for the shortness of the notice, Lady Beachcroft had told them to expect only a family dinner. It was with some surprise, therefore, that upon descending to dinner Agnesbeheld arepastofaluxury, splendour, and variety, to which she had been but little accustomed.- Lady Priscilla had preferred a simple plenty to the epicurean profusion of a London table. It was with almost equal surprise that Agnes observed that Sir George was not present.-Lady Beachcroft addressing her recovered myself yet. But what have you done with little Tony, hey,-d-n him, bas he broke his neck off one of his horses yet." Agnes sat fixed in amazement that Miss Beachcroft would deign to answer such mingled impiety and impertinence. "Lord bless me, my dear," said she in reply to a whispering reproof, "the men of fashion are all alike, and if one wants purity of conversation, one must take up with a boy from the plough. I must own they swear a little too much, but then the mode is to be afraid of nothing, and least of all of Heaven. "But what do you think of that Gentleman, Agnes," continued she; I have seen him look at you more than once in a very earnest manner?" "Who is he?" said Agnes; "he seems ta me a very bold confident looking man." "And I can assure you, my dear, he does not at all belye his looks. Why, that is the famous Sir Harry Mirabel, one of the finest men, and if report says true, the most accomplished and successful of rakes. His opinion is the standard of beauty, elegance, and fashion. Let him only declare that you are beautiful, and you in the same instant almost become a toast. His fortune is very ample, and enables him to support his character with a good equipage, which is almost every thing.-He has only one fault, I think, he is so intolerably bold, so abominably false, and so inconceivably vain. As I am alive here he comes to exchanged chairs with Gorget." "I pity him, indeed," said Agnes, "has his banker broke?" "No, not that," said Lady Beachcroft. "It seems an old friend, and school-fellow of Sir Harry's, invited him down to spend a month or two at his house; and the wife of this old friend happened to be a woman of some beauty, and so Sir Harry seduced her. They say the husband is one of those sentimental boobies who talk of injured peace, violated friendship, rights of hospitality, and so forth, and he has unluckly enough persuaded the jury to be of the same opinion, for seven thousand pounds damages have been given against Sir Harry. And Sir Harry, to do him justice, has paid them without a murmur, but with the per Indeed she had scarcely concluded this character or eulogy of him, before he seat-fect grace of a man of the mode." ed himself, and staring Miss Beachcroft full in the face with an opera-glass, though not three feet asunder, at length exclaimed,-"Thus cherubs grow to angels. Efaith, child, you have not visited Cornwall in vain, for your beauty is no less improved than the fashions of the present Jay." "Nonsense," said Miss Beachcroft, striking him somewhat smartly with her fan, you are as extravagant as ever." "As just you mean, I presume," replied be; "nay, I appeal to this lady, madam," continued he, addressing himself to Agnes, " is it not more just to feel and acknow. ledge the power of all sovereign beauty, than to withhold from it its merited tri. bute of general adoration?" As Agnes did not understand him, she was somewhat embarrassed in what manner to answer, but was saved from that necessity by Miss Beachcroft, who continued the dialogue with equal flippancy. Agnes saw that Mirabel was one of those coxcombs, who abuse an excellent understanding to the purposes of general gallantry, and who content themselves with the easier fame of being a fop, when nature has intended them for far superior characters. Upon the ladies withdrawing to the drawing room, Lady Beachcroft repeated to Agnes the question of her daughter, what she thought of Mirabel. "But you do not now see him in his fall spirits, as he has lately had a great loss, seven thousand pounds at once." 19 "I do not wonder at that, mamma," said Miss Beachcroft, "for they say the lady is very handsome, and the success of this intrigue has gained him I can assure you a no inconsiderable degree of reputation.' The conversation was here interrupted by the entrance of Mirabel. The surprise of Agnes was great that the knowledge of his character did not render him less wel come. "Lord bless me, my dear," said Miss Beachcroft in reply to a remark upon this subject, "how intolerable would the world of fashion be, if it were governed by the same prejudices as you good country folks. How is Mirabel less agreeable to us because others have found him the most agreeable of men? Every one acknowledges that he is the most accomplished of men, and as to his being a profligate, what is that to us? Evil communications, may be a good maxim in the country, but in the fashionable world would cut every one off from their next door neighbour." The coaches were now at the door, and accompanied by Mirabel, the party departed for the theatre. The mind of Agnes was as yet so occupied with the novelty of her situation, that it was less open than it otherwise would have been to extraneous observation." Upon entering the theatre, Agnes was dazzled with the splendour of the lights, painting, and profusion of decoration; and when the music struck up, in her confusion she was scarcely sensible of her situation. The play was The Trip to Scarborough. Agnes was astonished at the licentiousness of the plot, of which Mirabel himself appeared sensible, as he endeavoured, for purposes best known to himself, to fix her attention upon the most exceptionable parts. Agnes only replied by averting her head another way, but Miss Beachcroft, who was a perfect girl of fashion, smiled, blushed, and rebuked him with slight taps of het fan. "It is no wonder," thought Agnes, "that the town should everflow with libertines, when such comedies as this are presented at the theatre. - What is the hero of every comedy but a Mirabel? It is in vain that conjugal infidelity is so justly punished in our courts of law, when it is so scandalously propagated by the seductive example of the theatre." Whilst Agnes was making these remarks, Miss Beachcroft, in compliance with the mode, was talking so loud, and with such evident disregard of the performers, as had already excited the indignation of her less fashionable neighbours in the gallery.Turning to Agnes rather abruptly, "I congratulate you, my dear, upon your conquest," said she. "Upon my conquest?" said Agnes. "Yes," continued Miss Beachcroft, "there is a fellow in the pit has had his eyes on you the whole night, I scarcely know what to make of him. He sits on the third bench from the orchestra, and almost exactly in the middle. You cannot fail to see him for his eye is not a moment off you." turned round, and again encountered the looks of the stranger. Agnesagain trembled, and refixed affrighted to the back part of the box. "Pray Sir Harry," said Miss Beachcroft, "are you a magistrate?" "Yes," said he, "when I am in the humour." "Then I wish you would commit that fellow to gaol for six months." "What has he done?" demanded the Baronet. "Why, he stares so impudently," said she, "he has put Miss Harrowby out of countenance." "I am afraid," replied Sir Harry, "that I can do nothing in this affair, for there is no act of parliament against looking at a beautiful woman. However, you may have your revenge on him; for you have only to look on him in return, and strike him blind by your overpowering radiance." "The fellow is so ugly," said she, " or I might try what I could do." In the mean time the play was over, and as the farce was a most vile one; Lady Beachcroft arose to depart. Agnes again cast her eyes into the pit, and again for a third time encountered those of the stranger. Her terror was now so great, that she was compelled to support herself by the arm of Sir Harty, who, enraptured with this unexpected concession, made no inquiries into the cause, and Agnes herself was too much confused, to explain. Her affright was increased when Miss Beachcroft whispered her that her admirer, as she pleasantly called him, had arose, and was following her out of the theatre. Every moment did Agnes expect to see him approach and address her, and so ter Agues cast her eyes on the pit, and with some confusion met the glance of the stranger, who gazed on her unmoved. Agnes withdrew her eyes but not before sherified was she by the ferocity of his looks, had impressed on her mind the singular image of the man. His dark countenance was evidently that of a foreigner, his eyes were black and piercing, and the tout ensemble of his demeanour was that ofa villain. Agnes shuddered as she encountered his gaze. "Well I protest," said Miss Beachcroft, "your charms have fascinated the fellow, for his eyes are still fixed on you." By an involuntary motion, Agnes again No. III. Vol I-N. S. that she was almost ready to sink with the apprehension of seeing him nearer her. She gained the coach, however, without any interruption, though she had scarcely taken her seat, before she saw him appear; he appeared evidently to have lost sight of her, and the coach drove off without her being again seen by him. [To be Continued.] 3. If I had not found this term applied to leaves, I should have been apt to derive it from suber, a cork, and not from sub and erodor, to be eaten into, and explained it accordingly. When applied to the stem it certainly means that the bark is soft and elastic like cork BERKENHOUT. 4. Not in SMITH. 5. Not in LAMARK OF BRISSEAU-MIREEL. |