your sketches, apparently without thinking of what he is doing." Emma blushed, and began to think Lady Harriett in a more rational humour, than she had ever known her. "Now acknowledge, my dear Emma," continued her sentimental companion, that there is something infinitely soothing to the mind of susceptibility, in the idea of being beloved." She paused for a reply, which Emma gave briefly, saying, Certainly any one is unworthy of being beloved, who is incapable of appreciating the sincere attachment of a worthy object." "Yes," said Lady Harriett," and an object may be worthy, though doomed to be unfortunate, as my sweet friend Eliza Dunderton says, and indeed her brother is a proof of her assertion; he is not so lively, so very much the rage as Lord Courtney, or as handsome as Count Rodalvi, but he is inteteresting, and truly amiable." Then throwing herself into what she conceived a charming attitude, with a tragedy air, which showed how rapidly she improved in the society, and from the counsels of her Eliza, she exclaimed in a pathetic, tone, “Ill fated youth, my heart must feel thy woes, But my seal'd lips their source shall ne'er disclose." Then with a well acted confusion she hastily bade goodnight, and retired, to the great joy of Emma, who could only account for her romantic absurdity, by supposing that she had lost her reason, or was talking in her sleep. CHAP. CHAP. XXI. Friendship! thou greatest happiness below, For life's sure medicine is a faithful friend. TRACEY. THE next morning Edmund breakfasted by appointment with Henry, whose spirits were again fled, and his countenance expressed the effects of a sleepless night and an uneasy mind. As soon as they were alone, Edmund remarked with concern, his friend's altered looks, requested him to have some medical advice. "Alas! Rodalvi," said he, "there is not an article in the materiamedica which would afford me relief; un less less it have lately gained some, capable of ministering to a mind deseased; there lies my ill, there I ought to minister to myself, and from that I shrink like a base coward." He started up, and walked about in great agitation, Edmund besought him to be tranquil; “Tranquil!” he exclaimed, "no, no, it is not for me. to be tranquil! you, Edmund, are happy, you have never forfeited your own esteem; and thousands in my situation would not be unhappy, wretched that I am, I abhor vice, yet cannot summon resolution to practise the virtue, that I know and admire." After a long pause, in which he endeavoured to recover sufficient calmness to resume his discourse, he continued, "I am ashamed to confess, how early I formed the design of seducing the innocent girl, whom you saw yesterday; it commenced even from the moment in which I first beheld her. Encouraged by finding that she had not mentioned my impertinent behaviour to her her father, my vanity construed her silence into partiality, and I resolved to improve it to my own advantage, though I was soon convinced that the fear of exciting her father's uneasiness, had been her sole motive for the only reserve she had ever used towards him. Would that she had related it in the first impulse of anger, he would not then have smiled on an assassin, who basely wounded him when he could not defend himself. "After Macdonald's death, it was necessary to fix on some plan for his daughter immediately; at first I determined upon sending her into Scotland, under the care of my servant, and in the company of Jane Williams, the gardener's daughter, a well-behaved honest young woman, whe had waited on her, and to whom she appeared attached.. Unfortunately I thought again, and however second thoughts may be deemed the wisest, they are seldom the most favorable to the causes of humanity and virtue, for |