that strength of mind and capacity for acquiring knowledge supposed to belong exclusively to the other.

For this combination of rare qualities, Agnes was admired; for her sweetness of temper, her willingness to oblige, her seeming unconsciousness of her own merits, and her readiness to commend the merits of others-for these still rarer qualities Agnes was beloved; and she seldom formed an acquaintance without at the same time securing a friend.

But short was thy triumph, sweet Agnes! and long was thy affliction!

Her father thought he loved her (and perhaps he was right) as never father loved a child before; and Agnes thought she loved him as a child never before loved a father. "I will not marry, but live single for my father's sake," she often said; but she altered her determination when her heart, hitherto unmoved by the addresses of the other sex, was assailed by an officer in the guards who came to recruit in the town in which she resided.

Clifford, as I shall call him, had not only a fine figure and a graceful address, but talents rare and various, and powers of conversation so fascinating, that the woman he had betrayed forgot her wrongs in his presence; and the creditor who came to dun him for the payment of debts already incurred, went away eager to oblige him by letting him incur still more. Fatal perversion of uncommon abilities! This man, who might have taught a nation to look up to him as its best pride in prosperity, and its best hope in adversity, made no other use of his talents than to betray the unwary of both sexes, the one to shame, the other to pecuniary difficulties; and he, whose mind was capacious enough to have imagined schemes to aggrandize his native country, the slave of sordid selfishness, never looked beyond his own temporary and petty benefit, and sat down contented with the achievements of the day, if he had overreached a credulous tradesman, or beguiled an unsuspecting woman.

But to accomplish even these paltry triumphs, great knowledge of the human heart was necessary; a power

of discovering the prevailing foible in those on whom he had designs, and of converting their imagined security into their real danger. He soon discovered that Agnes, who was rather inclined to doubt her possessing in an uncommon degree the good qualities which she really had, valued herself, with not unusual blindness, on those which she had not. She thought herself endowed with great power to read the characters of those with whom she associated, when she had even not discrimination enough to understand her own; and, while she imagined it was not in the power of others to deceive her, she was constantly in the habit of deceiving herself.

Clifford was not slow to avail himself of this weakness in his intended victim; and, while he taught her to believe none of his faults had escaped her observation, with hers he had made himself thoroughly acquainted. But not content with making her faults subservient to his views, he pressed her virtues also into his service; and her af fection for her father, that strong hold, secure in which, Agnes would have defied the most violent assaults of temptation, he contrived should be the means of her defeat.

I have been thus minute in detailing the various and seducing powers which Clifford possessed, not because he will be a principal figure in my narrative, for, on the contrary, the chief characters in it are the Father and Daughter; but in order to excuse, as much as possible, the strong attachment he excited in Agnes.

It has been remarked by a female writer of celebrity, that "love, however rated by many as the chief passion of the heart, is but a poor dependent, a retainer on the other passions-admiration, gratitude, respect, esteem, pride in the object; divest the boasted sensation of these, and it is no more than the impression of a twelvemonth, by courtesy, or vulgar error, called love." And of all these ingredients was the passion of Agnes composed. For the graceful person and manner of Clifford she felt admiration; and her gratitude was excited by her observing that, while he was an object of attention to every

one wherever he appeared, his attentions were exclusively directed to herself; and that he who, from his rank and accomplishments, might have laid claim to the hearts even of the brightest daughters of fashion, in the gayest scenes of the metropolis, seemed to have no higher ambition than to appear amiable in the eyes of Agnes, the humble toast of an obscure country town; while his superiority of understanding, and brilliancy of talents called forth her respect, and his apparent virtues her esteem; and, when to this high idea of the qualities of the man, was added a knowledge of his high birth and great expectations, it is no wonder that she also felt the last mentioned, and often, perhaps, the greatest, excitement to love," pride in the object."

When Clifford began to pay those marked attentions to Agnes, which ought always, on due encouragement from the woman to whom they are addressed, to be followed by an offer of marriage, he contrived to make himself as much disliked by the father, as admired by the daughter; yet his management was so artful, that Fitzhenry could not give a sufficient reason for his dislike he could only declare its existence; and for the first time in her life, Agnes learned to think her father unjust and capricious. Thus, while Clifford insured an acceptance of his addresses from Agnes, he, at the same time, secured a rejection of them from Fitzhenry; and this was the object of his wishes, as he had a decided aversion to marriage, and knew, besides, that marrying Agnes would disappoint all his ambitious prospects in life, and bring on him the eternal displeasure of his father.

At length, after playing for some time with her hopes and fears, Clifford requested Fitzhenry to sanction with his approbation, his addresses to his daughter; and Fitzhenry, as he expected, coldly and firmly declined the honor of his alliance. But when Clifford mentioned, as if unguardedly, that he hoped to prevail on his father to approve the marriage after it had taken place, if not before, Fitzhenry proudly told him he thought his daughter

much too good to be smuggled into the family of any one; while Clifford, piqued in his turn at the warmth of Fitzhenry's expressions, and the dignity of his manner, left him, exulting secretly in the consciousness that he had his revenge; for he knew the heart of Agnes was irrecoverably his.

Agnes heard from her lover that his suit was rejected, with agonies as violent as he appeared to feel. "What!" exclaimed she, "can that affectionate father, who has till now anticipated my wishes, disappoint me in the wish dearest to my heart?" In the midst of her first agitation her father entered the room, and, with " a countenance more in sorrow than in anger," began to expostulate with her on the impropriety of the connexion which she was desirous of forming. He represented to her the very slender income Clifford possessed, the inconvenience to which an officer's wife is exposed, and the little chance there is for a man's making a constant and domestic husband who has been brought up in an idle profession, and accustomed to habits of intemperance, expense, and irregularity.

"But above all," said he, "how is it possible that you could ever condescend to accept the addresses of a man whose father, he himself owns, will never sanction them with his approbation?" Alas! Agnes could plead no excuse but that she was in love, and she had too much sense to urge such a plea to her father. "Believe me,'

he continued, "I speak thus from the most disinterested consideration of your interest; for, painful as the idea of parting with you must be to me, I am certain I should not shrink from the bitter trial, whenever my misery would be your happiness; (here his voice faltered) but in this case, I am certain that by refusing my consent to your wishes I insure your future comfort; and, in a cooler moment, you will be of the same opinion." Agnes shook her head, and turned away in tears. "Nay, hear me, my child," resumed Fitzhenry, "you know I am no tyrant; and if after time and absence have been tried in order to conquer your unhappy passion, it remain un

changed, then, in defiance of my judgment, I will consent to your marriage with Mr Clifford, provided his father consent likewise; for, unless he does, I never will; and if you have not pride and resolution enough to be the guardian of your own dignity, I must guard it for you; but I am sure there will be no need of my interference, and Agnes Fitzhenry would scorn to be clandestinely the wife of any man."

Agnes thought so too; and Fitzhenry spoke this in so mild and affectionate a manner, and in a tone so expressive of suppressed wretchedness, which the bare idea of parting with her had occasioned him, that, for the moment, she forgot every thing but her father, and the vast debt of love and gratitude she owed him; and throwing herself into his arms, she protested her entire, nay, cheerful acquiescence in his determination. "Promise me, then," replied Fitzhenry," that you will never see Mr Clifford more, if you can avoid it; he has the tongue of Belial, and if........" here Agnes indignantly interrupted him with reproaches, for supposing her so weak as to be in danger of being seduced into a violation of her duty; and so strong were the terms in which she expressed herself, that her father entreated her pardon for having thought such a promise necessary.

The next day Clifford did not venture to call at the house, but he watched the door till he saw Agnes come out alone, and then, having joined her, he obtained from her a full account of the conversation she had had with Fitzhenry; when, to her great surprise, he drew conclusions from it which she had never imagined possible. He saw, or pretended to see, in Fitzhenry's rejection of his offers, not merely a dislike of her marrying him, but a design to prevent her marrying at all; and, as a design like this was selfish in the last degree, and ought not to be complied with, he thought it would be kinder in her to disobey her father, and marry the man of her heart, than, by indulging him once, flatter him with the hope she would do it again, till by this means, the day of her marrying, when it came at last, would burst on him with tenfold horrors.