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appeared a tall raw-boned Hibernian; one coat pocket stuffed with packs of cards, and dice rattling in another. His waistcoat pockets were loaded with counters and bad money; whilst billet-doux filled the fobs of his breeches. You, madam,' said the Saint, acknowledge this boy to be of the race of the O'Blacklegs; what have you to plead in your own defence for this deviation from the most sacred duties and obligations? Please your Saintship,' replied she, sobbing, cannot vindicate myself, but hope what I have to say may afford some palliation, or if it do not screen myself from punishment, may be a warning to some of my hearers, Your Sanctity has heard of the Countess of Cheatwell, Not much to her advantage, replied the Saint. She keeps a gaming-house in one of the fashionable squares. But proceed."

I fifteen years ago married a very amiable and worthy man, and highly esteemed and respected. Heaven can witness I long loved him dearly, and still regard him as much as ever! During the first ten years of our union, although we spent the winters in town, and mingled with people of our own rank, our pleasures were principally domestic, our parties were select and elegant, and not indiscriminate and numerous. We occasionally attended at operas, routs, and other fashionable amusements; but did not place our chief enjoyment in such scenes of glare, noise, and insipidity; for insipid I then thought them. Would to Heaven my sentiments had always,con? tinued the same! About six years ago I, in an evil day, became acquainted with the Countess of Cheatwell. Her Lady ship's mans pers are, as many here can testify, very insinuating towards those whom she wishes to win. Our acquaintance commenced at Buxton, where, she declared, the retirement of the place was much more agreeable to her than the gaieties of Brighton or even Bath itself; and that though she was obliged, on account of some friends and cone nections, to be frequently in great and numerous parties, for her own part her chief delight was selections of friends, sociable and vational conversation. She had heard,' she said, of our wise mode of enjoying society, and was herself eager to be able, by detaching herself from many of her present acquaintances, to imitate so laudable an example, In short, she won my friendship and confidence. The following winter we often visited. She confessed to me it was im possible at once to leave off her former acquaintances; and appealed. to me if it would not be better to effect her intended change gram. dually, and so ultimately please herself, without disgusting those, to gratify whom she had sometimes engaged in amusements of which

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SHE HERSELF TOTALLY DISAPPROVED. Her plan I thought per fectly reasonable; but warned her against contracting a fondness for such pursuits. Believe me,' said the Countess,' there is no danger of that. The more I see of gaming and its consequences, the more do I hold it in detestation, the more firmly am I resolved te krep out of its destructive vortex. Indeed I know of no more effectual means of producing an abhorrence of that vice, than by frequenting scenes in which it is practised. On a weak mind, to be sure, they may have a contrary tendency; but on a vigorous understanding, with a firm, self-pos sessing heart, their effect is most certainly beneficial. You your self, my dear, whose mind surpasses in strength that of most ladies, would, by occasionally witnessing such fashionable amusements, (as they are called, very improperly I admit) be, if possible, more rivetted in your aversion to them.'

In the course of our intimacy I was prevailed on to be present at some of her Ladyship's routs, and though she and I in private concurred in expressing our reprobation of gaming, I did not find my aversion by any means increase, and was indeed so delighted with her Ladyship's own particular friends, whose manners were extremely engaging; and with the exquisite music, and other parts of ber entertainments, in which nothing was neglected to gratify the taste and enchant the fancy, that I insensibly became extremely fond of such parties. I even began to try my own fortune at amusements, which appeared to me so much to engage the earnest attention of my new acquaintances. Lady Cheatwell in very friendly terms advised me to refrain; but when she found me determined to persevere, said, she would commit my tuition to her own particular friends, robo would take care to guard me against imposition, which, as she ob served, is too frequently employed on such occasions. Indeed they taught me so well, that I was very successful, and had in a short time at my command a much greater sum than ever I had had in my possession from my Lord. Although our fortune was considerable, yet he was economical, a disposition I acquiesced in as prudent, as we had many children; all of them were daughters, and a great part of the estate, with the title, would go to the heir male. Having now plenty of money, I indulged in several expences, which I should not have before thought of. I proposed to my Lord to imitate some others of our own rank, by giving splendid routs, balls, and masquetades; and, trusting to my own stores, I assured him that the expence would not be heavy. My Lord, who was very much under July.]

my influence, agreed, though I believe not altogether consistently with his own judgment and wish.

'At this rate we went on during the winter. I was often at Lady Cheatwell's petits soupes, where I began to think the company really enchanting, So easy, good humoured, agreeable, and engaging were the ladies; so soft, so insinuating, so winning were the gentlemen, that I thought I was in a much more delightful society than I had ever witnessed. I was not, however, without some crosses; the expences of our entertainments, when the bills came in, turned out to be infinitely greater than we had anticipated; my own good fortune began to change. Towards the end of the season I found that I was, on the whole, a loser to the amount of 1500l. so that I was by no means in a condition to assist, as I once had proposed, in defraying the extraordinaries of our winter campaign. At this time a note from a lady of fashion reminded me of a debt incurred at hazard for 1200l. which she requested I should have the goodness to pay immediately, as she was herself much distressed for one of the same kind. I considered my own winnings in reversion as a certain resource for my debts of bonour, and luckily, as I thought, that evening there was to be an assembly at Lady Cheatwell's, where the play would be deep. Thither I accordingly went at the appointed hour, and soon going to pharo, was for some time very successful with a young nobleman, an intimate friend of Lady Cheatwell, of all our parties, and whom I greatly admired for the elegance of his manners and gracefulness of his figure. Encouraged by my success, I proposed very high stakes; but after many vicissitudes, found myself three, thousand pounds in his debt; and went home in great despair, cursing pharo and his host.

The next morning I had a visit from my antagonist; who, from the distress in which he saw me, conceiving the real state of the case, begged me not to be uneasy on his account; and, taking out his pocketbook, presented me with my own note to him cancelled, and also with a receipt from the fair applicant of the preceding day. He had, it seems, heard of the circumstance, and settled the account in half an hour after I confess I was charmed with this youth's behaviour, and I am afraid, not the less from the uncommon fineness of his person, and evident attachment to myself. My opinions had become less austere, from my intimacy with Lady Cheaty ell and her Coterie, They convinced me, that a married lady might have, a sentimental affection for another, without interfering with her duty to her huse

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band; and spoke much in favour of platonic love. Before we went out of town, I became fonder and fonder of this generous man; and not the less so, as I found my Lord much out of humour on account of the expences we had incurred. I felt a reluctance at the thoughts of going to the country, the greater as I found my Lord had conceived a very bad opinion of my sentimental friend, so that it would be impossible for him to visit me at our country-seat, as we had projected. Two evenings before we were to leave town, I was invited to sup with Mrs. Cogdie and her charming daughter, Biddy, Miss's sentimental friend a married gentleman I had often seen, Lady Cheatwell, O'Blackleg, and one or two more of the peculiar intimates of our set. A more exquisite and enchanting party I had never been in! The conversation was all interest, all sentiment, all love. My Lady Cheatwell delivered her opinion on marriage and its duties, in a way I once should have disapproved; but was then quite fascinated. By some means or other, small and select as our party was, it was thought expedient to divide it into smaller sets. Pairs filed off together, (as I since have known it to be the custom of that hospitable mansion); I was left alone with the charming youth; and-sbe sobbed out-we ceased to be Platonists. My gallant contrived to pass a good part of the summer in disguise, near our country-seat, and I became daily fonder and fonder of him. We frequently indulged in gaming, and I was much oftener a loser than a winner. One day, after he had spent about a fortnight at Bath, he returned with a melancholy countenance. I was extremely alarmed, and endeavoured to discover the cause. He long refused to inform me; but at length acknowledged he had been stript of all his cash, and contracted a very large debt, which he had no means of paying, as he entirely depended on his father, who would be very much incensed were he to hear of his folly, as he necessarily must, from his inability to discharge the debt himself. I myself owed my lover more than two thousand pounds, for which he had taken, as he said, merely as a matter of form, my potes at different times. I prayed him to endeavour to raise money on them, and that by the time they were payable, should be in town, and have an opportunity of disposing of my jewels, and getting Dovey's paste as usual with my Lady Cheatwell's friends, and other ladies of fashion, when they have great debts to pay for either losses at play, the emergencies of their gallants, or any other extravagance. After much reluctance, he consented, and we abandoned ourselves to our passion as before; but managed with such secrecy that I was totally unsuspected. In a few weeks my lover told me he was

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obliged to be absent for a month on a family party, at his father's, in a county two hundred miles from our mansion. The month appeared an age to me; but when it was finished, he did not return : a week, and another, passed away: still I saw or heard nothing of him. It was now the middle of November, when a servant announced a gentleman from Lady Cheatwell who wanted to see me. I desired him to be shewn into my dressing-room, and I found the gentleman was Mr. Patrick O'Blackleg. He had, he said, made use of Lady Cheatwell's name to obtain admittance on a business which he explained in a few words. He had procured money to my lover on my notes, and was engaged for their punctual payment, and, from what my lover had said, trusted to the disposal of my jewels for cash for that purpose. He gave me also to understand, to my great surprize, mortification, and fiction, that my gallant had eloped with another married lady, and was gone to the continent. Το add to my shame and affliction, I could perceive that O'Blackleg thoroughly knew the footing on which the nobleman and I had been. On coming to town for the winter, O'Blackleg paid me very close attention, found means to raise money upon my jewels; and, in short, so ingratiated himself into my favour, that he succeeded as my lover. I was now a confidential member of the gaming society at Lady Cheatwell's and her friends, and could tell you of many instances both of married and unmarried women, who have been seduced into profligacy from the morals of the gaming circles, and the difficulties from gaming losses."

She was going to proceed to the means by which she prevented discovery, when the Saint interrupted her, and told her he would defer pronouncing sentence upon her until he had heard other cases, as from them he might be able to judge whether there was a sameness or similarity of criminality, that so he might make one sentence serve for a number of criminals, in perfect conformity with the summary mode of popish inquisitors, whether saints or other sinners. Among ladies of fashion he found many cases that confirmed in his opinion the connection of cause and effect between gambling assemblies and the debauchery of the sexes; and that there was not a moie common class of gallants than the runners and underling agents of suchi frauds and depredations, like O'Blackleg.

Several females now marched forwards with remarkably prim demure countenances, folding their hands, and casting their eyes up to Heaven. As these approached, the Pig made such a set as pointers do when they get scent not of one partridge, but of a very large

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