into a select circle of her own acquaintance, which, she informed him, consisted of the very best company of Paler mo, where he would acquire the most useful of all knowledge the knowledge of the world-and this too in the most agreeable and most effectual manner.

This society was principally composed of a set of ladies of quality-maidens, wives, and widows-respectable undoubtedly on account of their sex and age; and a few gentlemen, who bore a wonderful resemblance in charac ter to the ladies. Whatever business or avocation the members of this society had, besides those of cards and sleep, it must be confessed that such avocations occupied but a moderate share of their time, as all of them spent six or seven hours of the four-and-twenty in the former, and none of them allowed less than nine to the latter.

Zeluco's bloom, vivacity, and aptitude in learning the different games, procured him many flattering marks of attention from the female members. These for some time pleased the youth himself, while his mother was highly gratified with the congratulations poured out on all sides on the promising talents and charming appearance of her son; she reflected with pleasure also on the vast advantage which he enjoyed in being, at such an early period of his life, removed from the contagion of frivolous company, and introduced into so polished a circle.

What degree of improvement a steady and persevering cultivation of this society might have produced in Zeluco, was not fairly tried; for the flattery and blandishments of the old ladies soon became insipid, and he strayed in search of pleasure to those haunts where she appears with less decorum and more zest; soon after he joined his regiment at Naples, where he passed most of his time with a few young officers, who, with an equal passion for pleasure, had not equal means of indulging it, and were, therefore, too apt to flatter his vanity and bear his humours. The love of pleasure seemed to increase upon him by indulgence, and was greatly cherished by the ill

judged prodigality of his mother, whose fondness could not resist his unrelenting importunity for money. The means with which this furnished him of indulging all his humours, in a country where rank claims an almost des potic sway over the lower orders of mankind, joined to his keeping company only with dependants, cherished and invigorated the seeds of caprice, selfishness, pride, and injustice, which had been early sown in the breast of Zeluco, and perhaps generated those which did not original, ly exist. With no pursuit but pleasure, and with superfluous means of attaining it, he enjoyed very little, being the constant slave of humour and caprice; and, besides, he looked forward with such fretful impatience to the pe riod when the law allowed him the uncontrolled command of his fortune, as was sufficient of itself to embitter all his present enjoyments.

The original source of his wretchedness, and what had augmented, or perhaps generated, this miserable impatience of temper, was the indulgence of his humours and his being too liberally supplied in the means of gratifica tion; but he himself imputed all his misery to the scanty allowance granted by his tutors, and to his not being of age.

Previous to this period he returned to Palermo; and although he did not attend his mother's assemblies with all the punctuality that she wished, yet he could not always resist the importunity of a mother who was ready to make every sacrifice for his gratification, and who exacted nothing in return but that he should give her the pleasure of seeing him admired in public, and condescend to bestow a little of his company on her in private.

The happy moment he had so anxiously sighed for arrived; and his guardians devolved into his own hands the entire conduct of his fortune. But while he remained in Sicily on account of certain arrangements, for which his presence was thought indispensably necessary, an incident occurred which detained him longer than he intended.

ONE of the most important personages of the society in

to which Zeluco had been introduced, was the countess Brunella, a lady who took every opportunity of insinuating that she had been in her youth greatly distinguished for her beauty. Nothing, however, remained to justify her pretensions, except this single consideration, that as she had no fortune, and possessed no amiable quality, it was impossible to account for the marriage which raised her both to rank and fortune, but by supposing that, at the time it took place, she had been handsome, Her charms, however, whatever they had once been, were now entirely fled; but she still retained all the vanity, inso lence, and caprice, which ever attended the bloom of beauty, with the addition of that peevishness and ill-humour which often accompany its decay. Her insolence, however, was only displayed to the unprotected, and her illhumour to her servants; for, to her superiors she was al ways obsequious, and to her equals she wore an everlast. ing simper of approbation. This woman's benevolence was regulated by decorum; her friendship by conveniency; and all her affections by etiquette. Her heart had no concern in any of these matters.

She was chaste, without being virtuous; because in her it proceeded from constitution, not sentiment. Guarded by the breast-plate of frigidity, which, like the Ægis of Minerva, repels the shafts of love, she walked through life erect, and steady to the dictates of decorum and selfinterest, without a slip or false step.

Inexorable to all helpless females who, from the frailty of nature, or the perfidy of man, were observed to totter, or even to stoop, in their progress, she insisted that they should be for ever excluded from the society of the up

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right: and if any person shewed a disposition to palliate their errors, this vulture of chastity quitted, for a moment, the frail bird on whom she had pounced, and turned her envenomed beak against those who were for shewing the smallest degree of mercy; and being freed by nature from any propensity to one particular frailty, she indulged, without bounds, in the gratification of envy, hatred, slander, haughtiness, and other vices of the same class, for which, from her childhood, she had discovered a decided taste.

This lady had a niece who lived with her. The young lady had little or no fortune in her own possession, and as little in expectation from her aunt, who was too vain and ostentatious to save any of her income, ample as it was. But the countess flattered herself that she should procure her niece such a marriage as would instantly supply all deficiencies, and raise her to wealth and grandeur. She made several unsuccessful attempts for that purpose; the failure proceeded more from the general dislike in which the aunt was held, than from the want of attractions in the young lady.

A little after Zeluco came of age, the aunt fixed her eyes on him as a commodious match for her niece.-She was not unacquainted with his irregularities; but as she considered rank and fortune as the great essentials in a husband, these being secured, she thought the rest of small importance. On former occasions she had proved, that she looked upon age and infirmity as no obstacles to the honour of being a husband to her niece, and by the pains she now took to draw in Zeluco to a marriage, she made it clear that she considered profligacy as an objection equally frivolous.

She began by paying uncommon attention to the mo ther of Zeluco; as the countess Brunella was her superior by nuptial rank, this attention greatly flattered the vanity of that weak woman.-She had for some time observed that Zeluco seemed to pay more particular regard to her niece than to any other young lady at Palermo

and she carefully instructed her in the arts of cherishing a moderate degree of liking into a violent passion. But this young lady, with less prudence, had much more sensibility than her aunt. The genteel figure and alluring manners of Zeluco seduced her into all the unsuspecting confidence of love; but he, amidst affected passion, preserved all the circumspection of determined perfidy.

Whilst the aunt, therefore, was artfully planning what she considered as an advantageous match for her niece, the unwary young woman granted, without marriage, what her aunt in similar circumstances had carefully preserved; not from any value she put upon the thing, but merely because she knew that by that means alone she could secure the husband who then paid his court to her.

Zeluco soon became tired of his conquest, and disgust. ed with the tears of the unhappy girl. He neglected her with an unfeeling indifference more unpardonable than the crime he had committed. This being observed by the aunt, she questioned her niece, who candidly confessed what her situation would in a short time have revealed.

The countess expostulated with Zeluco, attempting to obtain by threats, what integrity and a sense of honour ought to have inclined him to perform. He treated her threats with derision, and with all the coolness of a vete. ran in iniquity he told her, that if she chose to keep her niece's secret, he should: in which case, by the industry of her aunt, she might still be provided with a husband: in the meantime,' added he sarcastically, it is to be hoped that you will make your own niece an exception from your favourite maxim, that all who have made a single false step should be for ever excluded from respectable society.'

The young lady retired to a relation's in the country, and the adventure might have remained unknown to the public, had not the aunt, in the madness of her resentment, prompted a Neapolitan officer, who depended on her interest for his promotion, to call Zeluco to an account for his conduct on this occasion. Zeluco, who was consti.