animation added to her beauty, and the natural intelligence of her countenance, which was its greatest charm, added to the interest with which every one regarded her, while her conversation, replete with modest vivacity, drew the attention of every one.

The friendly dinner-party consisted of the honourable Mrs. Gainsborough, with her third husband, much younger than herself, whom common fame, that modern gossip, had reported of that he had been a strolling player; but Mrs. Gainsborough was rich, had long figured away as a leader of fashions, and what was it to any body if it was true what was said of her husband? it might not be truesome were certain it could not be so; he now wrote himself esquire. It was, however, in part true; Mr. Gainsborough was not a stroller, but he certainly had belonged to a provincial corps, when he first charmed the heart of this buxom widow.

Another

Another prominent character was a Mrs. Kendal, the widow of a wealthy nabob, with her pragmatical nephew, a Mr. Harrowby, looking up to a splendid fortune by his aunt's death, and always willing to see white crows, and black swans, if the good lady was determined they should be so; contented always to be called master Billy, and good boy, though near thirty years of age, by his aunt, who aspired to be thought young, using abundance of rouge, and aping the lisp and naïveté of sixteen, while the marks of age were visible, not only on her face, but her figure; but the good lady never remembered the past, if longer than twenty years since-all other periods were before she was born, or long before her time.

Her delectable nephew was much struck with the appearance of Clarissa; for he, in common with others, could discover a decided air of fashion under a demeanour the most artless, innocent,

and

and simple; and as his sole ambition was to be a man of fashion, though certainly without any of the important requisites, he determined to fix his choice there, if his perverse aunt did not still find him too young to marry. Fortune, he little imagined, had been so bountiful to Cla-. rissa; but yet he felt assured, by her air of independence, that she was not without money. The colonel, whose affairs he, as well as the rest of the world, knew were rather in a hopeless condition, would not so voluntarily have taken the. charge of a young lady, neither would his wife or himself have lavished on her such marked attentions, had not her fortune been more than pretty.

He therefore began, in a dandified manner, which he conceived to be ex-. cessively genteel and irresistible, to pay his court to the elegant ward of colonel Ardenbrooke, for which he was often checked by his aunt, who remarked as often-" How can you be so foolish,

Billy? do you think Miss Dorrington will have any thing to say to such a boy as you?"

On one of these sentences being repeated, Clarissa archly replied "Oh dear, madam, let the young gentleman divert himself!"

*

The emphasis she laid on the last word, and her expressive look and smile, with the general laugh this trifling sally occasioned, rendered the major more cautious in his attentions, while it completely silenced Mr. Harrowby; but his incorrigible aunt said "There,`now, Billy, Miss is perfectly right; you see how silly it is for young boys to ape men of riper years."

A look of anger, as the unfortunate subject of age was beginning to be broached, confined the attention of the nephew solely to his aunt the remainder of the evening.

When the hour of two in the morning had called on the members of this polite

VOL. I.

E

polite party to separate, and Clarissa was left alone with her then fascinating friend and hostess, Harrison was ordered to attend Miss Dorrington to her apartments. The tasteful elegance, the beautiful curtains, the almost magnificent bed, seemed as if placed in mockery in such a situation; the candlelight effect, however, was charming; and desiring Mrs. Harrison to shew her the dressing-room, Clarissa felt yet more delighted with that elegant little fairy retreat; for though on a much smaller scale (it may be recollected that Harrison called it to her lady only a light closet), it was fitted up in a manner so unique, so tasteful and convenient were all the miniature articles that adorned it, that Clarissa felt highly gratified at being placed where she was at a distance from the rest of the house whenever she wished to be alone, and when she desired to write to a dearly-beloved friend, she should be free from all interruption.

She