old Lady Driscol, who patronised her, and had there met my faithless lover. Alas! I had been weighed in the balance with a hundred thousand pounds—and found wanting! How wretched I resolved on being! I braided the hair I no longer took delight in curling; I neglected my dress—that is to say, I only wore white muslin; and my kind mother, who had been as angry with me as her gentle nature was capable of being, could now be as angry as she pleased with him. Her surprise at the infidelity was even greater than mine, and her sympathy was great in proportion. I talked of the perfidy of men, and said I should never marry.
"Six months went by, and, to tell you the truth, I was getting very tired of my despair, when one day a young man, a cousin with whom in my white-frock days I had been a great pet, came to stay in our house. He seemed touched with my melancholy—I confided my sorrows from confidence—he proceeded to consolation.
"I do not know how it was, I thought my ringlets did not merit neglect—that a girlish fancy was but a foolish thing. Lord Mandeville agreed with me; my father laughed at me, and said I ought to be consistent, that no
