lonel attempted to give a gay turn to the discourse; and said, 'I was engaged to have spent this evening disagreeably at Ranelagh, with a set of company I did not like. How vastly am I obliged to you, dear Mrs. Booth, that I pass it so infinitely more to satisfaction!'

my

Indeed, colonel,' said Amelia, I am convinced that to a mind so rightly turned as yours, there must be a much sweeter relish in the highest offices of friendship, than in any pleasures which the gayest public places can afford.'

Upon my word, madam,' said the colonel, you now do me more than justice. I have, and always had, the utmost indifference for such plea'sures. Indeed, I hardly allow them worthy of 'that name, or if they are so at all, it is in a very 'low degree. In my opinion, the highest friendship must always lead us to the highest pleasure.'

Here Amelia entered into a long dissertation on friendship, in which she pointed several times directly at the colonel as the hero of her tale.

The colonel highly applauded all her sentiments; and when he could not avoid taking the compliment to himself, he received it with a most respectful bow. He then tried his hand likewise at description, in which he found means to repay all Amelia's panegyric in kind. This, though he did with all possible delicacy, yet a curious observer might have been apt to suspect that it was chiefly on her account that the colonel had avoided the masquerade.

In discourses of this kind they passed the evening, till it was very late, the colonel never offering to stir from his chair before the clock had struck one; when he thought, perhaps, that decency obliged him to take his leave.

As soon, as he was gone, Mrs. Atkinson said to Mrs. Booth, I think, madam, you told me this afternoon that the colonel was married.'

Amelia answered, she did so.

'I think likewise, madam,' said Mrs. Atkinson, you was acquainted with the colonel's lady.'

Amelia answered, that she had been extremely intimate with her abroad.

Is she young and handsome?' said Mrs. Atkinson. In short, pray, was it a match of love or conve'nience ?'

Amelia answered, entirely of love, she believed, on his side; for that the lady had little or no for

tune.

I am very glad to hear it,' said Mrs. Atkinson; for I am sure the colonel is in love with some'body. I think, I never saw a more luscious picture of love drawn than that which he was pleased to give us as the portraiture of friendship. I have read, indeed, of Pylades and Orestes, Damon and Pythias, and other great friends of old; nay, I sometimes flatter myself, that I am capable of being a friend myself; but as for that fine, soft, tender, delicate passion, which he was pleased to describe, I am convinced there must go a he and 'a she to the composition.'

6

Upon my word, my dear, you are mistaken,' cries Amelia. < If you had known the friendship. which hath always subsisted between the colonel and my husband, you would not imagine it possi'ble for any description to exceed it. Nay, I 'think his behaviour this very day is sufficient to 'convince you.'

I own what he hath done to-day hath great merit,' said Mrs. Atkinson; and yet from what ' he hath said to-night-You will pardon me, dear madam; perhaps I am too quick-sighted in my 'observations, nay, I am afraid I am even imper'tinent.'

Fie! upon it,' cries Amelia, how can you talk in that strain? Do you imagine I expect ceremony?-Pray speak what you think with the utmost freedom.'

'Did he not then,' said Mrs. Atkinson,

repeat the words, the finest woman in the world, more than once did he not make use of an expression which might have become the mouth of Oroöndates himself -If I remember, the words were these, "that had he been Alexander the Great, he should "have thought it more glory to have wiped off á "tear from the bright eyes of Statira, than to have "conquered fifty worlds."

'Did he say so?' cries Amelia-'I think he did say something like it; but my thoughts were so 'full of my husband that I took little notice. But 'what would you infer from what he said? I hope don't think he is in love with me!'

you

I hope he doth not think so himself,' answered Mrs. Atkinson; though when he mentioned the bright eyes of Statira, he fixed his own eyes on yours with the most languishing air I ever beheld." Amelia was going to answer, when the serjeant arrived, and then she immediately fell to inquiring after her husband; and received such satisfactory answers to all her many questions concerning him, that she expressed great pleasure. These ideas so possessed her mind, that without once casting her thoughts on any other matters, she took her leave of the serjeant and his lady, and repaired to bed to' her children, in a room which Mrs. Atkinson had provided her in the same house; where we will at present wish her a good night.

CHAP. VIII.

Consisting of grave Matters.

WHILE innocence and cheerful hope, in spite of the malice of fortune, closed the eyes of the gentle Amelia, on her homely bed, and she enjoyed a sweet and profound sleep; the colonel lay restless all night on his down; his mind was affected with a kind of ague fit; sometimes scorched up with flaming desires, and again chilled with the coldest despair.

There is a time, I think, according to one of our poets, When lust and envy sleep. This, I suppose, is when they are well gorged with the food they most delight in; but while either of these are hungry,

Nor poppy, nor Mandragora,

Nor all the drowsy syrups of the East
Will ever medicine then to slumber.

The colonel was at present unhappily tormented by both these fiends. His last evening's conversation with Amelia had done his business effectually. The many kind words she had spoken to him, the many kind looks she had given him, as being, she conceived, the friend and preserver of her husband, had made an entire conquest of his heart. Thus, the very love which she bore him, as the person to whom her little family were to owe their preservation and happiness, inspired him with thoughts of sinking them all in the lowest abyss of ruin and misery; and while she smiled with all her sweetness on the supposed friend of her husband, she was converting that friend into his most bitter

Friendship, take heed; if woman interfere,
Be sure the hour of thy destruction's near.

These are the lines of Vanbrugh; and the sentiment is better than the poetry. To say the truth, as a handsome wife is the cause and cement of many false friendships, she is often too liable to destroy the real ones.

Thus the object of the colonel's lust very plainly appears; but the object of his envy may be more difficult to discover. Nature and Fortune had seemed to strive with a kind of rivalship, which should bestow most on the colonel. The former had given him person, parts, and constitution, in all which he was superior almost to every other man. The latter had given him rank in life, and riches, both in a very eminent degree. Whom then should this happy man envy? Here, lest ambition should mislead the reader to search the palaces of the great, we will direct him at once to Gray's-inn-lane; where in a miserable bed, in a miserable room, he will see a miserable broken lieutenant, in a miserable condition, with several heavy debts on his back, and without a penny in his pocket. This, and no other, was the object of the colonel's envy. And why? because this wretch was possessed of the affections of a poor little lamb; which all the vast flocks that were within the power and reach of the colo. nel, could not prevent that glutton's longing for. And sure this image of the lamb is not improperly adduced on this occasion; for what was the colonel's desire but to lead this poor lamb, as it were, to the slaughter, in order to purchase a feast of a few days by her final destruction, and to tear her away from the arms of one where she was sure of being fondled and caressed all the days of her life.

While the colonel was agitated with these thoughts, his greatest comfort was, that Amelia