Certain it is, that Selina felt more at ease with Sedley, than with any other of the beaux who now constantly attended in her train. Sometimes the compliments of her professed admirers were too exaggerated for even her vanity to believe. But, with him, she felt she could at all times talk and laugh unrestrainedly; he seemed to have no pretensions, and therefore she did not think it necessary to be on her guard against either wounding or encouraging them. If the inconsiderateness of her buoyant spirits, or her inexperience of the rules of etiquette, led her into any trifling dilemma, she was always certain of his good humoured and effectual assistance in relieving her from her embarrassment; whilst, on the other hand, he had imperceptibly assumed the privilege, which she had as unconsciously yielded to him, of reproving her for any trifling sin, either of omission or commission, against the laws of fashion. She therefore reposed a certain confidence in Sedley, that led her to have a different feeling for him, from that she experienced for the other individuals by whom she was surrounded. For her natural timidity led her almost always to yield her opinion, without contention, to that of any other person, whose knowledge or abilities she supposed superior to her own. She even felt relieved, by believing she could in safety repose on the wisdom of another; for she had never yet been placed in a situation, in which she was necessitated to act for herself. Her ideas of the perfection of her father and Mrs. Galton had been such, that she not only never had disputed their authority, but had so entirely relied on their judgment, that her own had never been called into action. With her recollections of them Augustus Mordaunt had hitherto been united: the first affections of her heart had turned towards him, as to the playfellow, the companion, the brother of her earliest infancy; and had he too been her guide on her first entrance into life, she would probably have been induced to bestow on him a still dearer title. But Sir Henry's death, and Lady Eltondale's subsequent artifices, had totally separated poor Selina from all these her earliest friends. The misunderstanding, which had at first arisen partly from accident, between her and Mordaunt, was afterwards carefully increased by the crafty Viscountess; and her two unsuspecting victims, by their mutual errors, facilitated the success of her machinations. Both, conscious of the integrity of their own feelings, avoided rather than sought an explanation, which both considered due to their own individual pride. By both the perceptible alteration of each other's manner was attributed to the change that had taken place in their relative situation; and, above all, as the interruption of their intimacy had occurred by imperceptible degrees, no opening was left for reconciliation by the pretext of decided grievance. Whenever they met, which was now but seldom, a mutual indifference seemed to have succeeded