Mifs Byron will do me great honour

If Charlotte won't attend you, madam, faid the Countefs, to my Lord G.'s, I will.

Have I not brought you off, Harriet, whispered Mifs Grandifon-Truft me another time.She will let you know the day before, my lord.

Mifs Grandifon, my Lord, faid I, loves to alarm. But I will with pleasure wait on her, and on the Countefs, whenever they pleafe.

You will fee many things worth your notice, madam, in Lord G.'s collection, faid Sir Charles to me. But Charlotte thinks nothing less than men and women worthy of hers; her parrot and fquirrel, the one for its prattle, the other for its vivacity, excepted.

Thank you, Sir Charles-But pray do quiet! I fear nobody elfe.

you be Mifs Byron, faid the Counters, pray spare her not: I fee you can make Charlotte be afraid of

two.

Then it must be of three, Lady L.-You know my reverence for my elder fifter.

Indeed but I don't. I know only, that nobody can better tell, what the should do, than my Charlotte But I have always taken too much delight in your vivacity, either to wifh or expect you to rein it in.

You acted by me like an indolent parent, Lady L. who mifcalls herfelf indulgent. You gave me my head for your own pleafure; and when I had got it, though you found inconvenience, you chofe rather to bear it, than to take the pains to restrain me-But Sir Charles, whatever faults he might have had when he was from us, came over to us finished. He grew not up with us from year to year His blaze dazzled me; and I have tried over and over, but cannot yet get the better of my reverence for him.

If

If I have not my fifter's love rather than what fhe pleasantly calls her reverence, I fhall have a much worse opinion of my own outward behaviour than of her merit.

Your outward behaviour, Sir Charles, cannot be in fault, faid Lord L.: But I join with my fister Charlotte, in her opinion of what is.

And I too faid the countefs-for I am a party-This is it, Sir Charles-Who that lies under obligations which they cannot return, can view the obliger but with the most delicate fenfibility!

Give me leave, faid Mifs Emily, her face crimfoned over with modest gratitude, to fay, that I am one that fhall ever have a reverence, fuperior to my love, for the best of guardians.

Blushes overspread my face, and gave a tacit acknowledgment, on my part, of the fame fenfibility, from the fame motives.

Who is it, joined in Dr Bartlett, that knows my patron, but must acknowledge

My dear Dr Bartlett, interrupted Sir Charles, from you, and from my good Lord L. thefe fine things are not to be borne. From my three fifters, looking at me for one, and from my dear ward, I cannot be fo uneafy, when they will not be restrained from acknowledging, that I have fucceeded in my endeavours to perform my duty to them. I long to know, as I faid once before, the particulars of what Sir Charles has done, to oblige every body in fo high a manner. Don't you,

Lucy? Blefs me! what a deal of time have I wafted fince I came to town? I feel as if I had wings, and had foared to fo great a height, that every thing and perfon that I before beheld without dif fatisfaction, in this great town, looks dimunitive and little, under my aking eye. Thus, my dear, it must be in a better world, if we are permitted to look back upon the highest of our fatisfactions in this.

I was asked to give them a leffon on the harpfichord after tea. Mifs Grandifon faid, Come, come, to prevent all excuses, I will fhew you the

way.

Let it then be, faid Mr Grandifon, Shakespeare's Cuckow. You have made me enter with fo much comparative fhame into myfelf, that I muft have fomething lively to raife my fpirits.

Well, fo it fhall, replied Mifs Grandifon. Our poor coufin does not know what to do with himself when you are got a little out of his reach.

This is not fair, Charlotte, faid Sir Charles. It is not that graceful manner of obliging in which you generally excel. Compliance and reflection are not to be coupled.

Well, well, but I will give the good man his Cuckow to make him amends.

Accordingly the fung that ballad from Shakefpeare; and with so much spirit and humour, as delighted every body.

Sir Charles being a judge of mufic, I looked a little fillier than ufual, when I was again called upon.

Come, my dear, faid the kind Countefs, I will prepare you a little further. When you fee your two eldest fifters go before you, you will have more

courage.

She fat down, and played one of Scarlatti's leffons; which, you know, are made to fhow a fine hand: And furely, for the swiftnefs of her fingers, and the elegancy of her manner, the could not be equalled.

It is referred to you, my third fifter, faid Sir Charles [who had been taken afide by Mr Reeves; fome whispering talk having paffed between them], to favour us with fome of Handel's music: Mrs Reeves fays, fhe has heard you fing feveral fongs out of the Pastoral, and out of fome of his finest oratorios.

Come

Come hither, come hither, my fweet HarrietHere's his Alexander's Feaft: my brother admires that, I know; and fays it is the nobleft compofition that ever was produced by man; and is as finely fet as written.

She made me fit down to the inftrument.

As you know, faid I, that great part of the beauty of this performance arifes from the proper tranfitions from one different strain to another, any one fong muft lofe greatly by being taken out of its place; and I fear

Fear nothing, Mifs Byron, faid Sir Charles!" Your obligingness, as well as your observation, intitle you to all allowances.

I then turned to that fine air,

Softly fweet, in Lydian meafures,
Soon he footh'd his foul to pleasures.

Which not being fet fo full with accompanying fymphonies, as moft of Mr Handel's are, I performed with the more eafe to myfelf, though I had never but once before played it over.

They all, with more compliments than I dare repeat, requested me to play and fing it once more. Dare repeat! methinks I hear my uncle Selby fay; the girl that does nothing but repeat her own praifes, comes with her If I dare repeat?

Yes, Sir, I anfwer, for compliments that do not elevate, that do not touch me, run glibly off my pen: But fuch as indeed raise one's vanity; how can one avow that vanity by writing them down? -But they were refolved to be pleafed before I began.

One compliment however, from Sir Charles, I cannot, I find, pass over in filence. He whispered Mifs Grandifon, as he leaned upon my chair, How could Sir Hargrave Pollexfen have the heart to endeavour to ftop fuch a mouth as that.

AN

AND now, having last night, and this morning, written fo many fides, it is time to break off. Yet Į I could give you many more particulars of agreeable conversation that passed, were I fure you would not think me insufferably tedious; and did not the unkind reserve of my cousin Reeves, as to the bufinefs of that Bagenhall, rush upon my memory with fresh force, and help to tire my fingers. I am the more concerned, as my coufin himself seems not eafy; but is in expectation of hearing fomething. that will either give him relief, or add to his pain.

Why, Lucy, fhould our friends take upon themfelves to keep us in the dark, as to those matters which it concerns us more to know, than perhaps any body else? There is a tenderness sometimes fhewn on arduous occafions in this respect, that gives as much pain as we could receive from the moft explicit communication. And then, all the while, there is fo much strength of mind, and difcretion, fuppofed in the person that knows an event, and fuch weakness in her that is to be kept in ignorance, that-But I grow as faucy as impatient. Let me conclude, before I expofe myself to reproof for a petulance that I hope is not natural to

Your HARRIET BYRON.

LETTER III.

Mifs HARRIET BYRON, To Mifs LUCY SELBY.

AN

Thurfday Night, March 2. ND what do you think was the reason of Mr Reeves's referves? A moft alarming one! I am obliged to him, that he kept it from me, though the uncertainty did not a little affect me. Take the account of it, as it comes out.