CHAPTER LXVII.

"A young lady decorously brought up, should only have two considerations in her choice of a husband. First, is his birth honourable? secondly, will his death be advantageous? All other trifling details should be left to parental anxiety." The Lady of Lyons.

Augusta, followed, courted, and admired, was yet far from happy. Life had now for her no unattained object; either to be derived from her own mind, or from that of others. She had never known Ellen's exquisite delight in giving pleasure, in conferring comfort, or administering consolation. She had some affections, but all her sources of happiness were selfish, in the lowest sense of the word. She had no delicate and secret springs of enjoyment; she had made a good match; the

mean ambition of a life was attained. Pomp, luxury, adulation, and respect surrounded her; she had nothing to desire, and she soon found that to have nothing to desire, is to have nothing to enjoy.

Her husband was kind, fond, proud of her; but he was more plebeian, more rosy, more pursy, than ever. She had become accustomed to his fortune; she had not become accustomed to himself. Whether he was disappointed in her affection, or whether he had some secret source of annoyance, we may not divine, but he grew silent and thoughtful, as Augusta grew sulky and ungrateful; and on the whole, neither looked the happier for their union. Then, too, Augusta's not all evil heart was peopled by regrets, self-reproaches, and sometimes in the silent night by Remorse; and against Remorse and her fell brood what power have jewels, and feathers, and cashmeres? Alas! the soft couch, the sleep - provoking chariot, seem but thorny. The lonely luxuries

to which we have sacrificed our own self-respect and another's peace become loathsome. And Augusta often wished herself in such a cot as Mrs. Evelyn's, with a light heart, untortured by self-reproach, and Julian, no matter how poor, by her side, with looks of love, and blessing her from the depths of a grateful heart, for all she had dared, all she had sacrificed!.. Alas! alas!......

When seeking pleasure, or rather chasing the fiend, Ennui, in her elegant and most modish equipage, she suddenly found herself almost driving, in her base and insulting pomp, over him, whom she had so wronged, so vilely sold, with his warm heart and noble impulses, for the fineries that surrounded her sold, when he came in his deep distress to ask her to be the accompanying and atoning Eve of the exile of Eden, came without one doubt of her proud and glad devotion when she saw him, pale, wan, care-worn, but how sublime, how beautiful, in his manly endurance,

his noble fortitude! how awful in the withering scorn, which had replaced the once passionate love of those unforgotten eyes-then, then, she felt the desolation she had brought upon her own heart; then would she gladly have been a beggar by his side, rather than the owner of all that disgraceful wealth; then did her cheek grow white, and her heart sick; and then could she have seen him, have induced him to tarry, or to grant her a moment's audience, she could almost have knelt in the mire before him, to ask him to forgive!

Luckily for her, he would not hear, he would not heed her; her efforts to convey to him her proffers of service, and her expressions of contrite sympathy, were vain; and, after a while, she gave up the attempt and rushed into dissipation, to banish thought. She dressed, and flirted, and rouged her nowfaded cheeks; and squandered her husband's money; and neglected and quarrelled with

him; and was outwardly as gay as she was inwardly desolate.

Alas, for good matches, and good match

makers!

But Mrs. Lindsay knew nothing of this. She saw Lady Riskwell's name in the papers, included in all fashionable " arrangements," "arrivals," and "departures." The beautiful Lady Riskwell figured in the "Court Journal;' her jewels, her carriages, were the theme of universal praise. But no one praised the husband; he was quite, as it were, and as Mrs. Lindsay said to herself, "taken into the bargain." But what did that matter? He grudged Augusta nothing, indulged her to excess; bore with her sulky, her passionate, or her peevish fits; and was a husband, (as Mrs. Lindsay said,) whom any woman might be proud of, particularly riding by her in his own coach, or sitting by her in his own crimson-lined pew.

VOL. III.

M