deemed extremely desirable; being usually friends from Change, about his own age; men who have spent their lives in the plodding pursuits of gain, to the acquisition of which all their talents have been invariably exerted—I had almost said exhausted, for their conversation seldom displays either knowledge of arts or taste for attainments that lead not to the great end of becoming rich. They claim, however, the merit of industry; and though sometimes I am confounded
with their vulgarity, in men passed the middle of life one is less shocked with that roughness which proceeds from plain dealing than with the smart and forward attempts made by some of the beaux of this line to appear degagè men of the world against nature and education.
Mrs. Hindon, though far short of my sanguine expectations, is a well-meaning woman, and by no means deficient in several good qualities. These are indeed often obscured by the want of one which bestows lustre on every other, I mean delicacy. She would not willingly inflict a wound, if she was conscious of its poignancy; but she is totally destitute of those feelings which tell when anothers are hurt. Without being generous, she does not fail in point of charity; I mean that branch of the duty that consists in giving alms. She keeps excellent order in her family, piques herself upon being an active oeconomist,
goes seldom into public, and is not given to dissipation. Our hours are early and regular, at least when compared with those which prevail in this country, and our evenings are generally spent at home, where now and then an easy friend joins the family party.
I have discovered one striking feature in Mrs. Hindon's character, to which perhaps may be attributed her unbounded civility to us. Yet I own it is unfair to place her kindness in a light that deprives it of all its merit. She was herself of very low extraction, and probably for that reason has attached an idea of importance to rank and family, which induces her to attend with the most sedulous regard and respect to all who have the slightest claim to distinction. Since our abode here, I have suspected a scheme, which repeated observation now convinces me is not without foundation. Captain Wilmot, Mrs. Hindon's nephew,
in a manner lives in her house; and except at the seasons of sleeping or dressing, makes constantly one of the family. He is become of late extremely particular in his attentions to Fanny, and continually entertains her in a sort of half whisper, which gives their conversation the air of a tete à tete. He is good