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draw the portrait of her rival with the pencil of knowledge.

"Who can know her better than I do? Dear, sweet girl! I wonder how she will succeed in the world? That odious Lady Jane has so bowed the poor thing's spirit, that she has scarcely left her the power of knowing black from white. All that she does is so sweet! so good!-so in rule! that I am terribly afraid she will be thought dull; but she is not dull, I can assure you. Yet, if the truth must be spoken, there is something very like dullness in her feelings. None of that devoúment which marks the existence of superior spirits. Hers is not a superior spirit. How peaceably will she pass through life! While I—” The inference was easily made, and all acute feelers declared for Lady Charlotte. But more particularly did she desire to fasten this inference upon

the imagination of Mr. Willoughby the handsome, the fashionable, the agreeable, the rich Mr. Willoughby! -the desired of all beholders who had daughters to marry, and of those who wished to become wives themselves.

The dazzling charms of Lady Charlotte had powerfully attracted him: he seemed to be on the point of surrendering to manners so animated, and a display so imposing as scarcely to leave admiration an option: yet the magical words had not been spokenhe was still without the fatal circle

and a more powerful enchantress might rend asunder in a moment all the spells which it had cost Lady Charlotte so much pains and art to

weave.

CHAP. III.

"Much may be said on both sides."
SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY.

"THE good horse is mine," said Lord Burghley to Mr. Lascelles: "Willoughby weds, and the fair Isabella is the bride."

"How do you prove this, my Lord?"

asked Mr. Lascelles.

"Oh! as l'ami de famille, I am in the secret. Besides, I have this moment parted from Willoughby, radiant with joy and triumph."

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Triumph!" repeated Mr. Lascelles: what, over his own inclinations? I have lost my money, but I shall keep my opinion. I still maintain that he takes the woman he approves, rather than the one whom he admires."

"The choice does him honour," replied Lord Burghley.

"Do you mean to call him a fool, my Lord ?"

"Is it folly, in an engagement for life, to prefer that which will retain its excellence through every period of it, to that which will only charm for a day?"

"I lost my money on a contrary calculation," replied Mr. Lascelles; "and on what can approbation fasten in a school-room automaton, the creature of Mamma and la Governante? who has been bribed to show no will of her own before matrimony, by the

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hopes of never submitting to that of another afterwards?"

"You do not know Isabella," said Lord Burghley. "Yes, I do," replied Mr. Lascelles. "I know her for a miracle of education! So much accomplishment, so much wisdom, so much propriety, at eighteen, is an artificial monster, that revolts me more than could the most hideous incongruities of nature."

"Oh!" returned Lord Burghley, "if imperfection is your taste, Lady Jane's education has left enough of that to satisfy any man. You might pursue your favourite plan of reform, even if this monster of perfection had fallen to your lot. I speak of natural qualities, not artificial adjuncts; and I repeat, that you do not know Isabella."

“Better than she does herself, poor innocent!" replied Mr. Lascelles. She would not do a naughty thing for the

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