Per

'D-n his forgiveness,' said Booth. haps I ought to blush at what I have forgiven.'

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You surprise me,' cries Trent. Pray what can 'be the matter?'

Indeed, my dear Trent,' cries Booth, very gravely, he would have injured me in the tenderest part. I know not how to tell it you; but he 'would have dishonoured me with my wife.'

Sure, you are not in earnest,' answered Trent; but if you are, you will pardon me for thinking 'that impossible.'

Indeed,' cries Booth, I have so good an opinion of my wife as to believe it impossible for him to succeed; but that he should intend me the favour, you will not, I believe, think an impossibility.'

Faith! not in the least,' said Trent.

· Mrs. 'Booth is a very fine woman; and, if I had the honour to be her husband, I should not be angry with any man for liking her.'

But you would be angry,' said Booth, with a Iman, who should make use of stratagems and con'trivances to seduce her virtue; especially if he did this under the colour of entertaining the highest friendship for yourself.'

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Not at all,' cries Trent. It is human na⚫ture.?

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Perhaps it is,' cries Booth; but it is human nature depraved, stripped of all its worth, and loveliness and dignity, and degraded down to a ' level with the vilest brutes.'

Look ye, Booth,' cries Trent, I would not be misunderstood. I think, when I am talking " to you, I talk to a man of sense, and to an inha'bitant of this country; not to one who dwells in 6 a land of saints. If you have really such an ' opinion as you express of this noble lord, you have the finest opportunity of making a complete

'fool and bubble of him that any man can desire, and of making your own fortune at the same time. I do not say that your suspicions are groundless; 'for, of all men upon earth I know, my lord is 'the greatest bubble to women, though I believe ' he hath had very few. And this I am confident 'of, that he hath not the least jealousy of these suspicions. Now, therefore, if you will act the 6 part of a wise man, I will undertake that you shall 'make your fortune, without the least injury to the chastity of Mrs. Booth.'

I do not understand you, sir,' said Booth.

Nay,' cries Trent, if you will not understand 'me, I have done. I meant only your service; and I thought I had kuown you better.'

Booth begged him to explain himself.

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• If you can,' said he, shew me any way to improve such • circumstances as I have opened to you, you may depend on it, I shall readily embrace it, and own my obligations to you.'

That is spoken like a man,' cries Trent. Why, what is it more than this? Carry your suspicions in your own bosom. Let Mrs. Booth, in whose virtue I am sure you may be justly 'confident, go to the public places; there let her treat my lord with common civility only; I am sure he will bite. And thus, without suffering him to gain his purpose, you will gain yours. I 'know several who have succeeded with him in this 'manner.'

I am very sorry, sir,' cries Booth, that you are acquainted with any such rascals. I do assure 6 you, rather than I would act such a part, I would subinit to the hardest sentence that fortune could pronounce against me.'

Do as you please, sir,' said Trent; I have only ventured to advise you as a friend. But do you not think your nicety is a little over-scrupu .lous ??

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You will excuse me, sir,' said Booth; but I think no man can be too scrupulous in points • which concern his honour.'

I know many men of very nice honour,' answered Trent, who have gone much farther; and no man, I am sure, had ever a better excuse for it than yourself.-You will forgive me, Booth, since what I speak proceeds from my love to you; nay, indeed, by mentioning your affairs to me, which I am heartily sorry for, you have given me a right to speak. You know best what friends you have to depend upon: but, if you have no other pretensions than your merit, I can assure you, you would fail, if it was possible you could have ten times more merit than you have. And, • if you love your wife, as I am convinced you do, what must be your condition in seeing her want the necessaries of life?'

'I know my condition is very hard,' cries Booth; but I have one comfort in it, which I will never part with, and that is innocence. As to the mere 'necessaries of life, however, it is pretty difficult to deprive us of them; this I am sure of, no one 'can want them long.'

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Upon my word, sir,' cries Trent, I did not 'know you had been so great a philosopher. But, believe me, these matters look much less terrible at a distance, than when they are actually present. You will then find, I am afraid, that honour hath no more skill in cookery than Shakspeare tells us it hath in surgery.-D-n me, if I don't wish his lordship loved my wife as well as he doth 6 yours, I promise you I would trust her virtue; and, if he should get the better of it, I should have people of fashion enough to keep me in counte'nance.'

Their second bottle being now almost out, Booth, without making any answer, called for a bill. Trent pressed very much the drinking another bottle; but

Booth absolutely refused, and presently afterwards they parted, not extremely well satisfied with each other. They appeared indeed one to the other in disadvantageous lights of a very different kind. Trent concluded Booth to be a very silly fellow; and Booth began to suspect, that Trent was very little better than a scoundrel.

CHAP. VIII.

Contains a Letter and other Matters.

WE will now return to Amelia; to whom immediately, upon her husband's departure to walk with Mr. Trent, a porter brought the following letter; which she immediately opened and

read:

'MADAM,

THE quick dispatch which I have given to your first commands, will, I hope, assure you of the diligence with which I shall always obey every command that you are pleased to honour me with. I have, indeed, in this trifling affair, acted, as if my life itself had been at stake; nay, I know not but it may be so; for this insignificant ' matter you was pleased to tell me, would oblige the charming person in whose power is not only my happiness, but, as I am well persuaded, my 'life too. Let me reap therefore some little advantage in your eyes, as you have in mine, from this trifling occasion; for, if any thing could add to the charms of which you are mistress, it would be perhaps that amiable zeal with which you maintain the cause of your friend. I hope, indeed,

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she will be my friend and advocate with the most lively of her sex, as I think she hath reason, and as you was pleased to insinuate she had been. Let me beseech you, madam, let not that dear heart, whose tenderness is so inclined to compassionate the miseries of others, be hardened only against the sufferings which itself occasions. Let not that man alone have reason to 'think you cruel, who, of all others, would do the most to procure your kindness. How often have I lived over in my reflections, in my dreams, 'those two short minutes we were together! But, alas! how faint are these mimickries of the imagination! What would I not give to purchase the reality of such another blessing! This, madam, is in your power to bestow on the man who ' hath no wish, no will, no fortune, no heart, no life, but what are at your disposal. Grant me only the favour to be at lady 's assembly. -You can have nothing to fear from indulging me with a moment's sight, a moment's conversation; I will ask no more. I know your delicacy, and had rather die than offend it. Could I 'have seen you sometimes, I believe the fear of 'offending you would have kept my love for ever 'buried in my own bosom; but, to be totally ex'cluded even from the sight of what my soul doats on, is what I cannot bear. It is that alone which hath extorted the fatal secret from me. Let that obtain your forgiveness for me. I need not sign this letter, otherwise than with that im'pression of my heart which I hope it bears; and, to conclude it in any form, no language hath words of devotion strong enough to tell you with 'what truth, what anguish, what zeal, what adoration I love you.'

Amelia had just strength to hold out to the end, when her trembling grew so violent, that she dropped the letter, and had probably dropped her