in their neft by night. Young broods of goldfinches are ftill feen; lapwings and linnets begin to congregate, and the red-breaft one of our fineft, though commoneft fongfters, renews his mufic about the end of the month. SCHOOL FOR PARENTS. RESUMED. BY A. K. ISLEWORTH. [Concluded from page 259.] Lo! this the land, whence Milton's mufe of fire, WHARTON. RMSBY foon after appeared; be feated himself, without fpeaking, by the fide of Catharine, apparently buried in thought. Catharine raised her fine dark eyes to his, with a look of anxious enquiry; it was fuch a look as the masterly pencil of a Raphael would have given to a commifferating fpirit, looking down with pity on the fufferings of an expiring faint; and it was a look, gentle reader, which penetrated the very foul of Ormsby. How fudden, how indefcribable is the effect of fympathy on the human mind. The features of Orm by underwent an inftant tranfition; the wildness which had before visited his countenance was vanished, tenderness beamed from his eyes, and a mild melancholy diffufed itself over his features. It did not, indeed, indicate that his heart was at eafe; but it evinced that the tumult of his foul was quieted, that the wilder paffions were fubdued, and that reafon had re-affumed her empire in his breast. " "Mifs Selby," faid he, " I fear I have incautioufly hurried you.' "No apologies, I entreat," faid Catharine;" but tell me, are you better than when I left you?" ( you?" "Mine, I repeat, is but a mental malady," faid he. "Would to heaven you would be my confident?" If I could ferve you, Mr. Ormby," faid Catharine-fhe paufed. "You can, at leaft, confole me," he replied. "If you think fo, I have no objection to hearing the cause of your diftrefs." Ormsby, after thanking her for her condefcenfion, proceeded to inform her of many things with which the reader is already acquainted. He flightly mentioned the long intimacy which had fubfifted between the family of Lord Hubert and his own; of the fecret agreement between the fathers for a union of their children, and spoke, without referve, of the reluctance he had felt at the thoughts of becoming the husband of Mifs Pedigree, from the first hour that it had been propofed to him; of the extreme diflike which he had to the faftidious manners and flighty conduct of the pretty Selima. Nevertheless, he continued, I confidered myself bound in honour to ful fil thofe engagements which Sir James had formed for me. I have watched, narrowly, to fee if time or chance would discover any traces of fenfibility in the heart of Selima, by which I could form a more favourable opinion of her character, but I have watched in vain; the is incapable of a tender attachment-fhe thinks unbounded love and admiration due to her fuperior charms, and looks with frigid contempt on those whose understandings will not fuffer them to pay the tribute her weak vanity would exact from them. Lady Hubert has, by her own example, and unbounded fondness, increased the follies of her daughter, while the credulous father implicitly yields the little understanding that wine has left him, to their guidance, and fees every object exactly through the medium they prefcribe to him. Hence it is that he has, for fome time, fuppofed that I have given an indirect infult to him, by not haftening my marriage with his daughter. Happy indeed was it for me, that I was not blindly hurried into an indiffoluble engagement with her; for I have made a dif 66 a difcovery of fuch an infamous nature as I can scarce bring myself to fhock your purity by relating of it. "Mifs Selby, would you believe that Selima Pedigree is frail as fair?” Surely," faid Catharine, " you must have been mifinformed?" "No, no," he replied, "do not think me capable, upon flight grounds, of villifying a woman's fame; the ftroke of the midnight affaffin is not more daftardly, than that of the wretch who throws the dart of calumny at the reputation of a woman; but I have proof that cannot be controverted-yet I will, if poffible, fave Mifs Pedigree from infamy; but I cannot make that woman the guardian of my honour, who has fhown herfelf fo little able to defend her own." Here the appearance of Mr. Selby interrupted the converfation; he came in pursuit of Ormfby, to inform him the Pedigrees were leaving the house in great anger, and that Sir James requested to fee him immediately. He bowed to Catharine and departed with his friend. Catharine was again left to form conjectures of occurrences which the could not fathom, followed them flowly to the houfe, and bufied herfelf in making a few neceffary preparations for her journey home, which was to take place the following day. While fhe is fo employed, we will relate to our readers a few facts with which they are unacquainted. Mr. Selby, who was given with reverential awe To read God's awful name, emblazon'd high, BARBAULD, had frequently, when fo engaged, feen, at a late hour, a female form glide through the pleafure grounds, and after being abfent a confiderable time, return the fame way, moftly attended by an elegant looking man. He fancied, and he feared that the frail fair one was Mifs Pedigree; but who could be her companion at fuch an hour and in fuch a place, feemed an enigma which he could could not folve. That it was not Ormfby he was very certain, and in the vicinity of the manor there was only a few ftraggling farm houfes, intermixed with cottages inhabited by labourers. He pondered for fome days on the propriety of acquainting Ormsby with this feeming myftery; at length, after mature deliberation, he determined to communicate his fufpicions to him. Thunderftruck with furprife, he agreed to watch that night in the chamber which Mr. Selby occupied. He did fothe night was favourable, and the fair Selima (for her indeed it was) again quitted the houfe, after all the family was retired. She was met upon the lawn by the fame perfon as Mr. Selby had before feen. She put her hand through his arm, and they truck into an interior path. Mr. Selby and Ormby then defcended to the drawing-room, which communicated by a flight of stone ftairs, with the garden; they there difcovered the attendant of Mifs Pedigree fitting on a fopha, waiting, as they fuppofed, the return of her lady. Struck with furprife, the endeavoured to account for her ftrange appearance there at fo late an hour; but they paffed her without attending to the apology fhe was framing, and croifing the lawn, ftruck into a path which led to an hermitage, thinking they might meet the imprudent pair, who had taken a more circuitous path. Presently the found of voices reached them, they paufed, and heard enough to convince them that the vanity of making a difficult conqueft over a profeffed libertine, had thrown the unfortunate Selima into the power of an unprincipled man. In the courfe of their converfation, he entreated her to hatten, by every poffible expedient, her marriage with Ormby, in order that they might meet with lefs reftraint. He fpoke of her attractions in the flighty terms of romantic paffion, complimented her tafte, extolled her beauty, and curfed, moft vehemently, his own ill-fortune, which had hackled him, before he knew his lovely Selima, to a dull piece of domeftic me VOL. VII. Kk chanifm. chanism. Difgufted with fuch monftrous duplicity, our friends returned filently to the house, and entered it by the fame way which they had quitted it; the fervant was not in the drawing-room, and they feated themfelves there in order to wait the arrival of the lady, who foon after entered, faftened the door cautiously after her, coughed gently-a light trembled in the paffage, and the lady tripped lightly through the room, without knowing that the was obferved. Mr. Selby and his friend foon after retired, not to reft, but to confult on the most proper fteps to be taken to unravel fo perplexing a thread of intricacies, without deftroying the cha racter of the imprudent, the thoughtlefs Selima. While they were deeply engaged in converfation, a gentle rap at the door furprised them; on opening it, the fervant of Mifs Pedigree appeared. Her lady had roufed by a few pevith expreffions, an irritable temper. She had been all day on the point of divulging the fecret to Lady Hubert; the occurrences of the evening determined her to be the first to expofe her frail-confiding miftrefs, hoping, by that means, to free herself from the imputation of being acceffary to her imprudence. From her they learnt, that the monfter who had feduced her lady, was a member of the peerage, though his conduct was an indelible difgrace to the family from which he fprang, and to the rank which he bore; that he was the unworthy husband of an amiable woman, and the guilty father of a virtuous family; that he had been for fome days, under pretence of indifpofition, the inhabitant of a neighbouring farm houfe; that his rank was not known, and that the next day was fixed on for his return to London. Having left his home, without in. forming his lady whither he was gone, it would be neceffary for him to be a few days vifible in London, in order to account for his abfence with more plaufibility. After the loquacious Abigail had related her tale, the arofe to retire. Mr. Selby feverely reprehended her for not having earlier informed Lady Hubert of the whole |