repeat, that women should be sure of their men, before they embark with them in the voyage of love. Hate the man, says Lady L-, for exposing her to the letterwriter!-Exposing!-Let me say, that women, who would not be exposed, should not put themselves out of their own power. O Miss Byron! (turning, to my confusion, to me, who was too ready to apply the first part of the caution,) be so good as to tell my Emily, that she must never love a man, of whose love she is not well assured that she must never permit a man to know his consequence with her, till she is sure he is grateful, just, and generous: and that she must despise him, as a mean and interested man, the first moment he seeks to engage her in a promise. Forgive me, Charlotte: you so generously blame yourself, that you will not scruple to have your experience pleaded for an example to a young creature, who may not be able, if entangled, to behave with your magnanimity.

Seasonably did he say this last part, so immediately after his reference to me; for I made Miss Grandison's confusion a half cover for my own; and I fear but a half

cover.

I find I must not allow myself to be long from you, my dear friends; at least in this company. Miss Cantillon, Miss Barnevelt, and half a dozen more misses and masters, with whose characters and descriptions I first paraded; where are you? Where can I find you? My heart, when I saw you at Lady Betty Williams's, was easy and unapprehensive: I could then throw my little squibs about me at pleasure; and not fear, by their return upon me, the singeing of my own clothes!

ANA

LETTER XXX.

MISS BYRON.-IN CONTINUATION.

BUT now what remains to be done for our sister? asked Lady L. Charlotte looked round her, as seconding the question. Every one referred to Sir Charles.

In the first place, let me assure you, my dear Charlotte, resumed he, that if you have but the shadow of a preference for Captain Anderson; and if you believe, from what has passed between you, and from the suspense you have kept him in, (which may have been a hindrance to his fortune or preferment,) that you ought to be his, whether in justice, or by inclination; I will amicably meet him, in order to make and to receive proposals. If you do not find him grateful or generous, we will make him so, by our example; and I will begin to set it.

Every one was affected: Dr. Bartlett as much as any body. Miss Grandison could hardly sit still: her chair was uneasy to her: while her brother looked like one who was too much accustomed to acts of beneficence, to suppose he had said any thing extraordinary.

Miss Grandison, after some hesitation, replied, Indeed, sir, Captain Anderson is not worthy of being called your brother. I will not enter into the particulars of his unworthiness; because I am determined not to have him. He knows I am: nor does my promise engage me to be his. Had he virtue, had he generosity-But, indeed, he has not either, in the degree that would make me respect him, as a woman should respect her husband.

SIR CH. Well then, Charlotte, I would have you excuse yourself, if you have given him hopes of meet

ing him; let him know that you have acquainted me with all that has passed between you; and that you refer yourself wholly to me; but with a resolution (if such be your resolution) never to be his.

MISS GR. I shall dread his violent temper

SIR CH. Dread nothing! Men who are violent to a woman, when they have a point to carry by being so, are not always violent to men. But I shall treat him civilly. If the man ever hoped to call you his, he will be unhappy enough in losing such a prize. You may tell him, that I will give him a meeting wherever he pleases. Mean time, it may not be amiss, if you have no objection, to shew me some of the letters that have passed between you; of those particularly, in which you have declared your resolution not to be his; the farther backward the better, if, from the date of such, you have always been of the same mind.

MISS GR. You shall see the copies of all my letters; and all his, if you please. And you will gather from both, sir, that it was owing to the unhappy situation I thought myself in, from the unkind treatment my sister met with, and to the being forbidden to expect a fortune that would entitle me to look up to a man of figure in the world, that I was ever approachable by Captain Anderson.

SIR CH. Unhappy! But let us look forward. I will meet Captain Anderson. If there are any letters, in which he has treated my sister unhandsomely, you must not let me see them. My motive for looking into any of them, is service to you, Charlotte, and not curiosity. But let me, nevertheless, see all that is necessary to the question, that I may not, when I meet him, hear any thing from him, that I have not heard from you; and which may make for him, and against you. I do assure you, that I

will allow in his favour, all that shall appear favourable to him, though against my sister. I may meet him prejudiced, but not determined: and I hope you see by my behaviour to you, Charlotte, that were you and he to have been fond lovers in your letters, you need not be afraid of my eye. I never am severe on lovers' foibles. Our passions may be made subservient to excellent purposes. Don't think you have a supercilious brother. A susceptibility of the passion called love, I condemn not as a fault; but the contrary. Your brother, ladies, (looking upon all three,) is no Stoic.

And have you been in love, Sir Charles Grandison? thought I to myself.-Shall I, Lucy, be sorry, or shall I be glad, if he has?--But, after all, is it not strange, that in all this time one knows so little of his history while he was abroad?-And yet, he said, that he was not angry at his sister for questioning him on the subject. Had I been his sister, questions of that sort would not have been to be now asked.

But here is a new task for her brother. I shall long to know how this affair will end.

The trial of Miss Grandison, as she called it, being thus happily over, and Miss Emily and Mr. Grandison desired to walk in, Sir Charles took notice, with some severity on our sex, on the general liking, which he said women have for military men. He did not know, he said, whether the army were not beholden to this approbation, and to the gay appearance officers were expected to ́make, rather than to a true martial spirit, for many a gallant man.

What say you, Emily? said he: Do not a cockade, and a scarlet coat, become a fine gentleman, and help to make him so, in your eyes?

Be pleased, sir, to tell me how such a one should look in my eyes, and I will endeavour to make them conform to your lessons.

He bowed to the happy girl: for my part, said he, I cannot but say, that I dislike the life of a soldier in general; whose trade is in blood; who must be as much a slave to the will of his superiors in command, as he is almost obliged to be a tyrant to those under him.

But as to the sex, if it were not that ladies, where love and their own happiness interfere, are the most incompetent judges of all others for themselves-Pardon

me

Your servant, sir, said Lady L. And we all bowed to him.

How can a woman, proceeded he, who really loves her husband, subject herself, of choice, to the necessary absences, to the continual apprehensions, which she must be under for his safety, when he is in the height of what is emphatically called his DUTY? He stopt. No answer being made; Perhaps, resumed he, it may be thus accounted for: women are the most delicate part of the creation. Conscious of the weakness of their sex, and that they stand in need of protection, (for apprehensiveness, the child of prudence, is as characteristic in them, as courage in a man,) they naturally love brave men-And are not all military men supposed to be brave?

But how are they mistaken in their main end, supposing this to be it!

I honour a good, a generous, a brave, a humane soldier: but were such a one to be the bravest of men, how can his wife expect constant protection from the husband who is less his own, and consequently less hers, than almost any other man can be (a sailor excepted); and who