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be happy! But indeed, my Lucy, your Harriet is much otherwife at this time.

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LETTER II.

Mifs BYRON. In Continuation.

WILL not let you lose the fubftance of a very agreeable converfation, which we had on Tuefday night after fupper. You may be fure, Lucy, I thought it the more agreeable, as Sir Charles was drawn in to bear a confiderable part in it. It would be impoffible to give you more than paffages, because the fubjects were various, and the tranfitions fo quick, by one perfon asking this queftion, another that, that I could not, were I to try, connect them as I endeavour generally to do.

Of one fubject, Lucy, I particularly owe you fome account.

Mifs Grandifon, in her lively way (and lively fhe was, notwithstanding her trial fo lately over), led me into talking of the detefted masquerade. She put me upon recollecting the giddy fcene, which thofe dreadfully interefting ones that followed it, had made me wish to blot out of my memory.diov

I fpared you at the time, Harriet, faid fhe. I afked you no questions about the masquerade, when you flew to us first, poor frighted bird! with all your gay plumage about you.

I coloured a deep crimson, I believe. What were Sir Charles's first thoughts of me, Lucy, in that fantastic, that hated drefs? The fimile of the bird too, was his, you know; and Charlotte looked very archly.

My dear Mifs Grandifon, fpare me ftill. Let

me

me forget that ever I prefumptuously ventured into fuch a scene of folly.

Do not call it by harsh names, Mifs Byron, faid Sir Charles. We are too much obliged to it.

Can I, Sir Charles, call it by too harsh a name, when I think how fatal, in numberlefs ways, the event might have proved! But I do not speak only with reference to that. Don't think, my dear Mifs Grandifon, that my diflike to myfelf, and to this foolish diverfion, fprings altogether from what befel me. I had on the fpot the fame contempts, the fame difdain of myself, the fame diflike of all thofe who feemed capable of joy on the light, the foolish occafion.

My good Charlotte, faid Sir Charles, fmiling, is lefs timorous than her younger fifter. She might. be perfuaded, I fancy, to venture

Under your conduct, Sir Charles, fmiling, as Lady L. and I, who have not yet had an opportunity of this fort, were trying to engage you against the next fubfcription-ball.

Indeed, faid Lady L. our Harriet's diftrefs has: led me into reflections I never made before on this kind of diverfion; and I fancy her account of it will perfectly fatisfy my curiofity.

Sir Ch. Proceed, good Mifs Byron. I am as curious as your fifters to hear what you say of it. The fcene was quite new to you. You probably expected entertainment from it. Forget for a while the accidental confequences, and tell us how you were at the time amused.

Amufed, Sir Charles !-Indeed I had no opinion of the diverfion, even before I went. I knew I fhould defpife it. I knew I fhould often with myfelf at home before the evening were over. And fo indeed I did; I whifpered my coufin Reeves. more than once, O madam! this is fad, this is intolerable ftuff! This place is one great Bedlam! Good heaven! Could there be in this one town fo

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many creatures devoid of reafon as are here got together? I hope we are all here.

Yet you fee, faid Mifs Grandifon, however Lady L. is, or feems to be, instantaneously reformed, there were two, who would gladly have been there : The more, you may be fure, for its having been a diverfion prohibited to us, at our firft coming to town. Sir Charles lived long in the land of Masquerades-O my dear! we used to please ourselves with hopes, that when he was permitted to come over to England, we fhould fee golden days under his aufpices.

Sir Ch. (fmiling). Will you accompany us to the next fubfcription-hall, Mifs Byron ?

I, Sir Charles, fhould be inexcufable, if I thought

Mifs Gr. (interrupting, and looking archly) Not under our brother's conduct, Harriet?

Indeed, my dear Mifs Grandifon, had the diverfion not been prohibited, had you once feen the wild, the fenfelefs confufion, you would think juft as I do: And you will have one stronger reason against countenancing it by your prefence; for who, at this rate, fhall make the ftand of virtue and decorum, if fuch ladies as Mifs Grandifon and Lady L. do not?-But I fpeak of the common masquerades, which I believe are more diforderly. I was difgufted at the freedoms taken with me, though but common freedoms of the place, by perfons who fingled me from the throng, hurried me round the rooms, and engaged me in fifty idle converfations; and to whom, by the privilege of the place, I was obliged to be bold, pert, faucy, and to aim at repartee and smartness; the current wit of that witlefs place. They once got me into a country dance. No prude could come, or if the came, could be a prude there.

Sir Ch. Were you not pleafed, Mifs Byron, with the first coup d'euil of that gay apartment?

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A momentary pleafure: But when I came to reflect the bright light, ftriking on my tinfel drefs, made me feem to myfelf the more confpicuous fool. Let me be kept in countenance as I might, by fcores of still more ridiculous figures, what, thought I, are other people's follies to me? Am I to make an appearance that fhall want the countenance of the vaineft, if not the fillieft, part of the creation? What would my good grandfather have thought, could he have feen his Harriet, the girl (excufe me; they were my thoughts at the time) whofe mind he took pains to form and enlarge, mingling in a habit fo prepofteroufly rich and gaudy, with a croud of Satyrs, Harlequins, Scaramouches, Fauns, and Dryads; nay, of witches and devils the graver habits ftriving which fhould moft difgrace the characters they affumed, and every one endeavouring to be thought the direct contrary of what he or the appeared to be?

Mifs Gr. Well then, the devils, at least, muft have been charming creatures!

Lady L. But, Sir Charles, might not a mafquerade, if decorum were obferved, and every one would fupport with wit and fpirit the affumed cha

racter

Mr Gr. Devils and all, Lady L.?

Lady L. It is contrary to decorum for fuch fhocking characters to be affumed at all: But might it not, Sir Charles, fo regulated, be a rational, and an almoft inftructive entertainment?

Sir Ch. You would fcarcely be able, my dear fifter, to collect eight or nine hundred people, all wits, and all obfervant of decorum. And if you could, does not the example reach down to those who are capable of taking only the bad and dangerous part of a diverfion: which you may fee by every common news-paper is become dreadfully general?

Mr

Mr Gr. Well, Sir Charles, and why should not the poor devils in low life divert themselves as well as their betters? For my part, I rejoice when I fee advertised an eighteen penny masquerade, for all the pretty 'prentice fouls, who will that evening be Arcadian fhepherdeffes, goddeffes and queens.

Mifs Gr. What low profligate fcenes couldst thou expatiate upon, good man! if thou wert in proper company I warrant thofe goddeffes, have not wanted an adorer in our coufin Everard.

Mr Gr. Dear Mifs Charlotte, take care! I proteft, you begin to talk with the spite of an old maid. Mifs Gr. There, brother! Do you hear the wretch? Will not you, knight-errant like, defend the caufe of a whole clafs of diftreffed damfels, with our good Yorkshire aunt at the head of,them?

Sir Ch. Thofe general prejudices and afperfions, Charlotte, are indeed unjuft and cruel. Yet I am. for having every-body marry. Bachelors, coufin Everard, and maids, when long fingle, are looked upon as houfes long empty, which nobody cares to take. As the houfe in time, by long difufe, will be thought by the vulgar haunted by evil fpirits, fo will the others, by the many, be thought poffeffed by no good ones.

The tranfition was fome-how made from hence to the equitablenefs that ought to be in our judgments of one another. We muft in these cafes, faid Sir Charles, throw merit in one fcale, demérit in the other; and if the former weigh down the latter, we must in charity pronounce to the perfon's advantage. So it is humbly hoped we fhall finally be judged ourselves: For who is faultlefs?

Yet, faid he, for my own part,, that I may not be wanting to prudence, I have fometimes, where the merit is not very ftriking, allowed perfons, at firft acquaintance, a fhort leafe only in my good o pinion; fome for three, fome for fix, fome for nine,. others for twelve months, renewable or not, as they

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