Every man, when he asks your hand, will certainly profess to love you; time and experiment can only prove his sincerity, or his steadiness;--but you, with all Mrs. Galton's philosophy in your head, must acknowledge, that all a woman's comfort in life depends on her not knowing the pangs of repentance." "Assuredly." "Well then, a woman who marries for love, generally sacrifices nine tenths of her life to a passion, that can, at best, last but a few months; and spends her remaining years in regretting her 'fond dream:' but she who calculates well before she marries, and weighs calmly the _pour_ and _contre_ of the lot she chooses for life, can, at all events, never repent the choice, which she made deliberately. But, however, why should we cavil about words, when there is not a chance of our ever dissenting in action?" Then reaching out her beautiful hand to Selina, with a bewitching smile, "Come, my love," added she, "tell me what I am to say for you to your _inamorato_." And then, by Selina's dictation, she returned a polite, but positive refusal to the obsequious Webberly. [Footnote 7: Proceeding from a frivolous head and a cold heart, their object is to express to women all that men do not feel, and all they wish to persuade them they do.] The time now approached for Lord and Lady Eltondale's leaving London, if so might be called that removal of their physical bodies to another scene of action, where their habits, their pursuits, and their associates remained the same. The Viscountess had not yet completed the annual circle of dissipation, and it was therefore determined, that while Lord Eltondale returned home alone, her Ladyship and Selina should, by a visit to Cheltenham, protract for a still longer time their return to the comparative retirement of Eltondale. Of course the due preparation for this new scene of gaiety served as an excuse for renewed visits to the whole circle of shops. In one of these expeditions Lady Eltondale had left Selina at Mrs.----'s, in Bond Street, while she paid a visit in the neighbourhood; and Selina was just in the act of trying on a bonnet, that the officious milliner declared was supremely becoming, when her ears were suddenly assailed by the loudest tone of Mrs. Sullivan's discordant voice, "Yes, it be wastly becoming, to be sure; but, for my part, I thinks a little servility and policy, much more becoming to a young lady, be she never so much of an airy-ass. Aye, Aye, Miss Seymour, you may stare and gobble; but it's to you, and of you, I'm a speaking." "Of me, ma'am?" returned the half frightened girl. "Yes, Miss, of you, with all your looks of modesty and ingeniousness;--but in my day, whenever a young lady got a love letter from a young man, she never lost no time in supplying to him; and, for my part, I think a purling answer to a civil question would never do nobody no harm, if it was the queen herself, in all her state of health." "If you allude to a letter from Mr. Webberly"--"To be sure I