 engaging me to meet Sir Edward. He no doubt had bribed her to his purpose. Let me not blame him however, whatever were the steps he took to obtain the interview, since the artfu• woman no doubt represented me to him in a false point of view, and the delicacy of his behaviour on this occasion has laid me under obligations to him which I can never recall without gratitude. So sacred must I hold the fame of a woman, however infamous, whom I once called my friend, that I will not confess even to Mr. Howard what dupes we have been to her artifice and duplicity. As for Mrs. Hindon, my terror and escape would to her appear just the counterpart of the good story of my alarm before, and would I make no doubt prove equally the subject of her mirth and diversion. I therefore resolved to say nothing of an event

which has shocked me severely, farther than to acknowledge that some reports of her conduct have reached my ears which have induced me no longer to continue our intimacy.
Poor Madame de Clarence! Much, much, I fear, she has had sufficient reason for her jealousy; and I accuse myself most severely for having given credit to the vile ridicule thrown on her by Mrs. Weldon.
I slept little all night; and to-day I really feel more uncomfortable than can be conceived. I have not only lost a friend and an agreeable companion, which of itself in our situation is irreparable, but I have found her to be criminal and unworthy. I fear I shall grow suspicious in future; for never could I have been more compleatly deceived than with regard to Mrs. Weldon, whose greatest fault I imagined consisted in a love of admiration and a passion for coquetry,

which is said in some degree to pervade the whole sex, and often subsists in the most innocent hearts.
But oh! can you guess the circumstance which of all others tortures me the most painfully, and dwells perpetually in my thoughts? What must Mr. Roatsley's ideas have been, how must his suspicions have received confirmation, from beholding me standing with a woman of this character, at the window of her residence. No wonder that he started and changed colour. No doubt he had heard of her before; and I can now partly trace the cause of those calumnies, to account for which puzzled and perplexed me so extremely. Our intimacy with Mrs. Weldon must have been the origin of all the defamatory reports that have reached his ears. But oh! Sophia! how will he be undeceived—and when? Is there any thing
