SIR,

You

To Mr. Brian Fitzpatrick.

YOURS received, and am furprised you should ufe me in this manner, as have never feen any of your cafh, unlefs for one linfey-woolfey coat, and your bill now is upwards of 150l. Confider, Sir, how often you have fobbed me off with your being fhortly to be married to this lady, and t'other lady; but I can neither live on hopes or promifes, nor will my woollen-draper take any fuch in payment. You tell me you are fecure of having either the aunt or the niece, and that you might have married the aunt before this, whofe jointure you fay is immenfe, but that you prefer the niece on account of her ready money. Pray, Sir, take a fool's advice for once, and marry the first you can get. You will pardon my offering my advice, as you know I fincerely wish you well. Shall draw on you per next poft, in favour of meffieurs John Drugget and company, at fourteen days, which doubt not your honouring, and am,

SIR,

Your humble fervant,

SAM. COSGREVE.

You

This was the letter word for word. Guefs, my dear girl, guefs how this letter affected me. prefer the niece on account of her ready money! If " every one of these words had been a dagger, I could with pleasure have stabbed them into his heart; but I will not recount my frantic behaviour on the occafion. I had pretty well spent my tears before his return home; but fufficient remains of them appeared • in my fwollen eyes. He threw himself fullenly into • his chair, and for a long time we were both filent. At length in a haughty tone he faid, I hope, "Madam, your fervants have packed up all your things; for the coach will be ready by fix in the "morning. My patience was totally fubdued by

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this

this provocation, and I anfwered, No, Sir, there is a letter still remains unpacked; and then throwing it on the table, I fell to ubraiding him with the most bitter language I could invent.

Whether guilt, or fhame, or prudence, restrained him, I cannot fay; but, though he is the moft paf• fionate of men, he exerted no rage on this occafion. • He endeavoured on the contrary to pacify me by the moft gentle means. He fwore the phrafe in the let ter to which I principally objected was not his, nor had he ever written any fuch. He owned indeed the having mentioned his marriage, and that preference which he had given to my felf, but denied with many oaths the having affigned any fuch reafon. And he excufed the having mentioned any fuch matter at all, on account of the ftraits he was in for money, arifing, he faid, from his having too long neglected his efiate in Ireland. And this, he faid, which he could not bear to difcover to me, was the only reason of his having fo ftrenuously infifted on our journey. He then ufed feveral very endearing expreffions, and concluded by a very fond caress, and many violent proteftations of love.

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There was one circumftance, which, though he did not appeal to it, had much weight with me in his favour, and that was the word jointure in the taylor's letter, whereas my aunt never had been married, and this Mr. Fitzpatrick well knewAs I imagined therefore, that the fellow must have inferted this of his own head, or from hearfay, I perfuaded myself he might have ventured likewife on that odious line on no better authority. What reafoning was this, my dear? was I not an advocate rather than a judge-But why de I mention fuch • a circumftance as this, or appeal to it for the juftification of my forgivenefs?-In fhort, had he been guilty of twenty times as much, half the tenderness and fondness which he used, would have prevailed on me to have forgiven him. I now made no far. ther objections to our fetting out, which we did the next morning, and, in a little more than a week, arrived at the feat of Mr. Fitzpatrick.

• Your

* Your curiofity will excufe me from relating any occurrences which paft during our journey: for it 'would indeed be highly difagreeable to travel it over again, and no lefs fo to you to travel it over with me.

This feat then is an ancient manfion-houfe: if I was in one of thofe merry humours, in which you have so often seen me, I could defcribe it to you ridiculously enough. It looked as if it had been for'merly inhabited by a gentleman. Here was room enough, and not the lefs room on account of the 'furniture: for indeed there was very little in it. An 'old woman, who feemed coeval with the building, ' and greatly refembled her whom Chamont mentions ' in the Orphan, received us at the gate, and in a howl fcarce human, and to me unintelligible, wel'comed her mafter home. In fhort, the whole fcene ' was fo gloomy and melancholy, that it threw my fpirits into the lowest dejection; which my husband 'difcerning, inftead of relieving, increafed by two * or three malicious obfervations. There are good "houfes, Madam,' fays he, as you find, in other places befides England; but perhaps you had ra"ther be in a dirty lodgings at Bath.'

Happy, my dear, is the woman, who in any ftate of life, hath a cheerful good-natured companion to fupport and comfort her; but why do I reflect on happy fituations only to aggravate my own mifery! my companion, far from clearing up the gloom of folitude, foon convinced me, that I must have been wretched with him in any place, and in any condition. In a word, he was a furly fellow, a character perhaps you have never feen: for indeed no woman ever fees it exemplified, but in a father, a brother, or a husband; and, though you have a father, he is not of that character. This furly fellow had 'formerly appeared to me the very reverfe, and fo he did fill to every other perfon. Good heaven! how is it poffible for a man to maintain a conftant lie in his appearance abroad and in company, and to content himself with fhewing difagreeable truth only at home? Here, my dear, they make themselves S 3

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• amends

amends for the uneafy reftraint which they put on their tempers in the world; for I have obferved the more merry, and gay, and good-humoured my hufoand hath at any time been in company, the more fullen and morofe he was fure to become at our next private meeting. How fhall defcribe his barbarity To my fondness he was cold and infenfible. My little comical ways, which you, my Sophy, and which others have called fo agreeable, he ⚫ treated with contempt In my most serious moments he fung and whiftled; and, whenever I was thoroughly dejected and miferable, he was angry and • abused me for though he was never pleafed with my good humour, nor afcribed it to my fatisfaction in him; yet my low fpirits always offended him, and thofe he imputed to my repentance of having (as he faid), married an Irishman.

You will eafly conceive, my dear Graveairs; (I ⚫ ask your pardon, I really forgot myfelf), that when ・ a woman makes an imprudent match in the sense ⚫ of the world; that is, when he is not an arrant

-an

prostitute to pecuniary intereft, fhe muft neceffarily • have fome inclination and affection for her man. You will as eafily believe that this affection may poffibly be leffened; nay, 1 do affure you, contempt will wholly eradicate it. This contempt I now began to entertain for my husband, whom I now difcovered to be-I must use the expreffionarrant blockhead. Perhaps you will wonder I did not make this difcovery long before; but women will fuggeft a thoafand excufes to themfelves for the folly of thofe they like: befides, give me leave to tell you, it requires a moft penetrating eye to ⚫ difcern a fool through the disguises of gaiety and good-breeding.

It will be eafily imagined, that when I once depiled my husband, as I confefs to you I foon did, dinufts confequently diflike his company; and indeed I had the happiness of being very little troubled with it; for our houfe was now most elegantly 35. furnished, our cellars well stocked, and dogs and horfes provided in great abundance. As my gen

⚫tleman

tleman therefore entertained his neighbours with great hofpitality; fo his neighbours reforted to him. with great alacrity; and fports and drinking con• fumed so much of his time, that a small part of his converfation, that is to fay, of his ill-humours, fell to my fhare. Ho

Happy would it have been for me, if I could as eafily have avoided all other disagreeable company; but alas! I was confined to fome which conftantly tormented me; and the more, as I faw no profpect of being relieved from them. Thefe companions were my own racking thoughts, which plagued, and in a manner haunted me night and day. In this fituation I past through a fcene, the horrors of which can neither be painted nor imagined. Think; my dear, figure, if you can, to yourself what I • must have undergone. I became a mother by the man I fcorned, hated, and detefted. I went through all the agonies and miseries of a lying-in, (ten times more painful in fuch a circumftance, than the worst labour can be, when one endures it for a man one loves), in a defert, or rather indeed a scene of riot and revel, without a friend, without a companion, or without any of thofe agreeable circumstances, which often alleviate, and, perhaps, fometimes more than compenfate the fufferings of our fex at that • feafon.'

CH A P. VI.

In which the mistake of the landlord throws Sophia into a dreadful confternation.

MR

RS. Fitzpatrick was proceeding in her narrative, when she was interrupted by the entrance of dinner, greatly to the concern of Sophia: for the misfortunes of her friend had raised her anxiety, and left her no appetite, but what Mrs. Fitzpatrick was

to fatisfy by her relation.

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The landlord now attended with a plate under his

arm, and with the fame respect in his countenance